North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un vowed to turn the country into a ‘socialist paradise’ during a huge ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
India has announced that it is upgrading its technical mission in Kabul to a full-fledged embassy, cementing its first high-level diplomatic engagement with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration since the group seized power in 2021 after the United States withdrawal and fall of the previous government.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday revealed the decision following talks with his Afghan counterpart in New Delhi.
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“Closer cooperation between us contributes to your national development, as well as regional stability and resilience,” Jaishanker noted, addressing Afghanistan’s Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at a joint news briefing.
Jaishankar said India was “fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan”. He thanked Muttaqi for his “invitation to Indian companies to explore mining opportunities in Afghanistan”.
The move reopens the embassy that was closed in 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces. India had since maintained a limited mission to oversee trade, medical, and humanitarian efforts.
In his remarks, Muttaqi said Kabul “has always sought good relations with India”. He also referred to ongoing counterterrorism efforts and said the Taliban administration would not allow anyone to use Afghanistan’s territory for targeting other nations.
There was controversy, however, as female journalists were not allowed in for the news briefing, a move likely requested by the Taliban delegation, who have again cracked down on women’s and girls’ rights and their access to education and jobs in Afghanistan since they recaptured power, drawing international condemnation.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in July for two top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan on charges of abuses against women and girls.
ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.
The Afghan foreign minister arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the United Nations Security Council Committee granted him a temporary travel exemption.
Muttaqi is among multiple Afghan Taliban leaders under UN sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes.
While some dozen countries, including China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkiye, have embassies operating in Kabul, only Moscow has formally recognised the Taliban government.
During the Taliban’s initial rule between 1996 and 2001, the Indian government refused to engage with the Afghan group and did not recognise their rule, which at the time was only recognised by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
India, which had supported the earlier Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah, shut down its embassy in Kabul once the Taliban came to power: It claimed the Taliban was a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, which had supported the mujahideen against Moscow.
Instead, New Delhi supported the anti-Taliban opposition group, the Northern Alliance.
Following the United States-led removal of the Taliban in 2001, India reopened its Kabul embassy and became a significant development partner for Afghanistan, investing more than $3bn in infrastructure, health, education and water projects, according to its Ministry of External Affairs.
Afghanistan’s regional neighbours, including India, voiced a rare unified front by opposing foreign attempts to deploy “military infrastructure” in the country, as US President Donald Trump presses to regain control of the Bagram airbase.
China tightened export controls for critical rare-earth metals on Thursday.
The new restrictions were announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and come ahead of an expected meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Donald Trump’s later this month.
The world’s two largest economies have been locked in trade negotiations aimed at calming tensions, after they raised tit-for-tat tariffs against each other earlier this year, before then agreeing to pull back on some of those levies.
Rare-earth metals are one of China’s major levers of influence with the US.
In “announcement number 61 of 2025”, China said it was increasing export controls for five rare-earth metals in addition to the seven it announced in April this year.
The five metals added to the list are holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium.
The seven minerals China placed export restrictions on earlier this year are samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.
There are 17 rare-earth metals in total – the 15 lanthanides (metallic elements) on the periodic table; scandium; and yttrium. China now has export restrictions on 12 of them.
In addition, on Thursday, China also placed restrictions on the export of specialist technological equipment used to refine rare-earth metals. Most of these restrictions will go into effect from December 1.
The announcement means that foreign companies will need to obtain special approvals from Beijing if they wish to export rare-earth magnets and certain semiconductor materials that have at least 0.1 percent heavy rare-earth metals from China.
To obtain the licence, foreign companies must explain the intended use of the product they wish to use Chinese rare-earth metals to make.
China cited national security interests as the reason for these new restrictions.
“Rare-earth-related items have dual-use properties for both civilian and military applications. Implementing export controls on them is an international practice,” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
The spokesperson added that “certain” foreign organisations and individuals have been directly transferring – or processing and then transferring – controlled rare-earth materials originating from China to “relevant organisations and individuals directly or indirectly for military and other sensitive applications”.
“This has caused significant damage or posed potential threats to China’s national security and interests, adversely affected international peace and stability, and hindered global non-proliferation efforts.”
Rare-earth metals are essential for the production of technological equipment such as electric cars, lithium ion batteries, LED televisions and camera lenses.
The metals are crucial for the US defence industry. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, rare earths are used to manufacture F-35 fighter jets, Virginia and Columbia-class submarines, Tomahawk missiles, radar systems, Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and the Joint Direct Attack Munition series of smart bombs.
Additionally, rare earths are used to create semiconductors, which are used in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
This is a strategic move on the part of China, analysts say.
China is the largest producer of these rare-earth metals. It mines at least 60 percent and processes about 90 percent of the world’s rare-earth metals, CSIS reported in 2024.
The new restrictions have been announced just three weeks before Trump’s visit to South Korea to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in late October.
During his visit, Trump is expected to meet with Xi. The leaders last met in person in 2019.
Earlier this year, Trump imposed tariffs of 145 percent on Chinese imports to the US. China retaliated with 125 percent tariffs. After reducing their tariffs to 30 percent and 10 percent respectively in May, the two sides struck a truce in August – agreeing a 90-day pause to allow time for trade talks. That pause has since been renewed twice as talks continue – most recently between US and Chinese officials in Spain last month.
China’s new restrictions on rare-earth metals, which Trump is known to want badly, give it more leverage for these talks.
Gracelin Baskaran, director of the CSIS Critical Minerals Security Program, explained that Washington’s defence industry is facing significant challenges caused by its limited production ability to meet rising defence technology needs. By restricting exports, China may be able to accelerate the expansion of its military strength at a faster pace than the US.
“The new restrictions will only deepen these vulnerabilities, further widening the capability gap,” Baskaran said.
“The move both strengthens Beijing’s leverage in upcoming talks while also undercutting US efforts to bolster its industrial base at a time where Indo-Pacific tension is climbing,” she said.
“Most [restrictions] don’t go into effect until December 1, 2025, leaving close to 2.5 months for these negotiations.”
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson told reporters on Thursday: “China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation through bilateral and multilateral export control dialogue mechanisms, promote compliant trade, and ensure the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.”
The US will be especially hit hard. In 2023, it was the largest importer of Chinese rare-earth minerals and products, importing $22.8m worth of rare earth products from China, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). In total, China exported $117m in rare-earth metals and products that year.
The US sourced 70 percent of its rare earth compounds and metals imports from China between 2020 and 2023, according to a US Geological Survey report.
Hong Kong ($12.1m), Russia ($12.2m) and Japan ($9.42m) also import significant amounts.
The US restricted China’s access to its semiconductors in 2022 under the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden. Some US lawmakers have pushed for even greater restrictions, warning that China could reverse-engineer or independently develop advanced semiconductor technologies, overtaking the US in the industry and securing a military advantage.
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Norwegian Football Federation President Lise Klaveness is looking forward to meeting her Israeli counterpart before a World Cup qualifier between the two on Saturday, following the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The Norwegian FA said in August that it would donate profits from ticket sales from Saturday’s Group I game against Israel to support the work of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, prompting immediate criticism from the Israelis.
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“I always meet other football presidents before we play games. I’m very much into dialogue, and the more difficult it gets, the more important is that we meet, even if it’s difficult,” Klaveness said on Friday.
Israel’s FA criticised the ticket money move at the time, saying: “It would be nice if some of the amount were directed to try to find a condemnation by the Norwegian FA of the October 7 massacre that claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli citizens and children.”
Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire with Hamas in the early hours of Friday morning, clearing the way to suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours and free Israeli captives held there within 72 hours after that.
“We are, of course, extremely happy, on behalf of the involved parties in the whole world, that there is a ceasefire. Football is nothing compared to peace, and now the bombs can stop over Gaza, and that hostages can come home,” Klaveness said.
“That’s very important, and I think it’s very important now that all of us, football leaders and leaders in all big organisations, now give this peace plan energy and momentum. We all know it’s a long way to sustainable peace, but it’s everyone’s responsibility to give it energy and momentum.”
The Norwegian FA has worked closely with police in Oslo on security matters around the game, and Klaveness, a 44-year-old mother of three who played for her country at two Women’s World Cups, said she hoped Israeli fans would feel safe attending.
“They are warmly welcome, and nothing that we say or state should ever be interpreted as directed towards them or that we don’t feel sympathy for what they’ve gone through with this horrific trauma of October 7th 2033,” she said.
“When we say something about condemning the attack on Gaza, it does not mean that we condemn the attack on their people any less.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians are walking back to Gaza City as the Israeli military begins its withdrawal from the area following the ceasefire agreement. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum is there, watching what he described as ‘an endless tide of humans’.
“Any misperceptions, missed deadlines or misinterpretations can scupper this whole [ceasefire].”