U.S. and Iran fail to reach agreement after peace talks, JD Vance says - Sunday, 12 April
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said that the U.S. and Iran were leaving peace talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad without an agreement early on ...
The World Bank has said it's approved more than $1 billion in new funding to support rebuilding efforts and infrastructure development in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.
Iraq will receive the largest portion, with $930 million allocated to upgrade its railway system, improve trade routes, generate jobs and help shift the economy away from oil dependency.
The investment will support the Iraq Railways Extension and Modernisation Project, which is expected to boost freight transport between the southern Umm Qasr Port on the Persian Gulf and the northern city of Mosul.
“This transition from reconstruction to development can drive growth and job creation,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank’s regional director for the Middle East.
In Syria, the Bank has approved a $146 million grant to restore electricity services through repairs to damaged transmission lines and substations. The announcement comes a month after Damascus signed a deal with companies from Qatar, Türkiye and the U.S. for a 5,000-megawatt energy project aimed at rebuilding the power grid.
Meanwhile, Lebanon—still recovering from its 14-month conflict with Israel—has been granted $250 million to rebuild essential infrastructure and restore basic public services.
The funds are part of the World Bank’s broader effort to support stability and recovery in a region struggling with the long-term effects of conflict and economic crisis.
Hungarians vote in elections on Sunday that could see the end of hard right nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s more than 15 year rule. Opinion polls show Orbán’s Fidesz party trailing 45-year-old Péter Magyar’s centre-right opposition Tisza party.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators held their highest-level talks in half a century in Pakistan on Saturday in an effort to end their six-week war, as President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had begun the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
Amid fragile calm, António Guterres urged constructive U.S.- Iran talks, while Pope Leo XIV warned violence is spreading. Lebanon's President said an Israeli strike killed 13 security personnel in Nabatieh.
Dubai has restricted foreign airlines to one daily flight to its airports until 31 May due to the Iran crisis, raising fears of significant revenue losses for Indian carriers, industry letters show.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese” and that the future of cross-strait ties should be decided by “the Chinese people themselves”.
The U.S., EU and their allies are racing to secure supplies of rare earth elements - essential materials for electric vehicles, wind turbines and advanced technologies - as China maintains a dominant position in processing.
Hungarians vote in elections on Sunday that could see the end of hard right nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s more than 15 year rule. Opinion polls show Orbán’s Fidesz party trailing 45-year-old Péter Magyar’s centre-right opposition Tisza party.
Britain’s plan to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which host a strategic U.K.-U.S. military base, has been put on indefinite hold after the Trump administration withdrew its support.
Ismail Omar Guelleh has been re-elected for a sixth term with 97.8% of the vote, according to state media, extending his nearly three-decade hold on power in the small but strategically significant East African nation.
Australia and Singapore have agreed to deepen cooperation on energy security as global fuel markets come under strain from disruption linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
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