Category World News

Islamabad, Pakistan – A series of explosions and bursts of gunfire rattled Afghanistan’s capital late Thursday evening, according to local media. The cause of the blasts and the extent of casualties remain unclear.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that an explosion had been heard in Kabul, saying the cause was under investigation.

“An explosion was heard in Kabul city,” he posted on social media platform X in Pashto. “But don’t worry, it’s all good and well. The accident is under investigation, and no injuries have been reported yet. So far there is no report of any harm done.”

The incident came amid worsening relations between Afghanistan and its western neighbour Pakistan, which has accused the Taliban government – in power since August 2021 – of providing safe havens to armed groups, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad blames for a surge in attacks on its security forces.

The explosions also coincided with the arrival of the Taliban administration’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in India for a six-day visit, the first such trip since the Taliban’s return to power.

Following the Kabul explosions, speculation swirled on social media that Pakistan was behind the attack, allegedly targeting senior TTP leaders, including its chief, Noor Wali Mehsud.

However, the Taliban have not levelled any accusations yet. Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media, neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the Kabul explosions. “We have seen the media reports and statements from Afghan officials about explosions in Kabul. However, we have no further details on this,” one official told Al Jazeera.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also did not respond to Al Jazeera’s queries.

While neither the Taliban nor the TTP has commented on Mehsud and whether he is safe, Mujahid’s comments suggest that no one was killed in the explosions.

Once seen as heavily backed by Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban have been trying to recalibrate their foreign policy, engaging regional powers such as India, their former adversary, in a bid to secure eventual diplomatic recognition.

Pakistan, meanwhile, has accused India of supporting armed groups operating on its soil, a charge New Delhi denies.

Fragile thaw between Kabul and Islamabad

After a bloody 2024, one of Pakistan’s deadliest years in nearly a decade, with more than 2,500 people killed in violence, both countries tried to reset their relationship.

Pakistan’s deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar visited Kabul in April, with senior leadership on both sides holding a series of meetings, often mediated by China. That process led to upgraded diplomatic ties and a brief lull in violence over the summer.

Yet, according to the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, violence in the first three quarters of 2025 nearly matched the entire toll of 2024.

TTP remains the singular cause for the increasing attacks since 2021, according to US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

“Our data show that the TTP engaged in at least 600 attacks against, or clashes with, security forces in the past year alone. Its activity in 2025 so far already exceeds that seen in all of 2024,” a recent report by the ACLED pointed out.

And in recent days, Pakistan has witnessed a further escalation in violence. A string of assaults has killed dozens of soldiers, mostly in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which shares a long and porous border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani military on Friday said it killed more than 30 fighters involved in a recent attack in the tribal district of Orakzai.

In September alone, at least 135 people were killed and 173 injured. After visiting wounded soldiers following raids that killed 19 personnel, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a stark warning to Afghanistan.

“Choose one of two paths. If they wish to establish relations with Pakistan with genuine goodwill, sincerity and honesty, we are ready for that. But if they choose to side with terrorists and support them, then we will have nothing to do with the Afghan interim government,” Sharif said on September 13.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif also accused Afghanistan of enabling violence in Pakistan while speaking on the floor of the parliament

“Despite years of negotiations with the Afghan government and delegations coming and going to Kabul, the bloodshed in Pakistan has not stopped. Daily funerals of military personnel are being held. We are paying the price of 60 years of hospitality to 6 million Afghan refugees with our blood,” he said.

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the 1980s, first after the Soviet invasion, then during the Taliban’s initial rule in the 1990s, and again after their 2021 takeover.

Since November 2023, Islamabad has been carrying out a mass expulsion campaign, forcing Afghans – many of whom have lived in Pakistan for decades – to return home. Government figures say nearly a million have been sent back so far.

Deepening mistrust

The tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban in recent years have also escalated into military clashes.

The Pakistani military has previously conducted airstrikes inside Afghan territory, the most recent one in December 2024.

Analysts say that if the latest explosions were indeed linked to Pakistan, the implications could be serious.

Tameem Bahiss, a security analyst based in Kabul, said the Taliban have consistently denied harbouring TTP fighters, and any formal acknowledgement of strikes inside the capital could inflame tensions.

“We’ve seen before those previous Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan yielded no concrete results. Instead, they only deepened mistrust and made cooperation on countering the TTP more difficult. This latest incident will likely harden positions further, making dialogue and coordination even more complicated,” he told Al Jazeera.

The last major targeted strike in Kabul took place in 2022, when al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone attack.

Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said that if Pakistan was involved in the attacks, they may have been intended as a warning following recent attacks on Pakistani soil.

Mehsud, who co-founded The Khorasan Diary, a security-focused news outlet, said the explosions could signal Pakistan’s intent to pursue high-value targets across the border.

“Pakistan could try and target individuals in Kabul, which is the political capital, as well as those in Kandahar, which is seen as the spiritual capital of Taliban, in case security situation in Pakistan remains dire and Afghan Taliban don’t rein in the TTP,” he cautioned.

Bahiss, however, warned that any cross-border strikes could backfire.

“If Pakistan continues to expand its strikes inside Afghanistan, more Afghans may begin to sympathise with the TTP. This sympathy could translate into new recruits, funding, and possibly even quiet support from some segments within the Afghan Taliban,” he said.

He added that if Pakistan indeed was targeting TTP leaders inside Afghanistan, that could provoke the group into escalating attacks inside Pakistan.

‘For her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.’ The Nobel Committee has announced Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Maria Corina Machado, a key opposition leader in Venezuela, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 for her struggle to promote democratic rights in her country.

Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer who lives in hiding in Venezuela, was blocked by its courts from running for president against President Nicolas Maduro in the 2024 elections.

“She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said the Norwegian Nobel Committee, awarding the prize on Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

Hailing Machado as one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America, it added that Machado had been a “key unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government”.

Machado ran as the democratic opposition candidate in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election but was disqualified by Maduro’s government and went on to support the opposition’s alternative candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

Incumbent Maduro won re-election that year with 51 percent of the vote – his third win since he first took over as president in 2013 after the death of his mentor, former President Hugo Chavez.

But the opposition said the results were rigged, claiming Maduro had only won 30 percent of the vote and that Gonzalez was the real victor.

The opposition received global support when it publicised vote counts collected from the country’s election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin.

Protests erupted, demanding the release of election results by individual polling stations, and Maduro’s government responded with a brutal crackdown on opposition protesters and leaders.

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, praised Machado’s decision to remain in her country, having been “forced to live in hiding” after “serious threats against her life”. Her choice, he said, had “inspired millions”.

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” he said.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) congratulated Machado. “This recognition reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law,” said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan.

‘Brave women and men’

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2m, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

The committee said in its announcement of this year’s winner that it has always “honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world”.

Winners in recent history include Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023, Congolese humanitarian Denis Mukwege in 2018,  and former United States President Barack Obama in 2009. Malala Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the award in 2014 at the age of 17. The oldest laureate is Joseph Rotblat, honoured at 86 for his work against nuclear weapons.

The 2024 award was given to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons”.

The recognition honoured the organisation’s decades-long campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and preserve the testimonies of the survivors of the US atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Disappointment for Trump

The lead-up to this year’s award had been dominated by US President Donald Trump’s repeated self-aggrandising public statements that he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee took its final decision just before an Israel-Hamas ceasefire came into effect in Gaza under the first phase of Trump’s initiative to end the war.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do, really, but I know this: That nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months, and I’ve stopped eight wars,” Trump said on Thursday. “So that’s never happened before, but they’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives.”

The president was alluding to the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, which saw him intervene with bunker buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites, as well as conflicts and tensions of varying levels of intensity, not all of which classify as wars, between India and Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.

Before the Nobel announcement, experts on the award had said Trump was very unlikely to win, as his policies were seen as dismantling the international world order that the Nobel committee cherishes.

That did not stop Trump’s cheerleaders from lobbying for a victory. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, said in a post on X that Trump should “undoubtedly” receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on ending the war in Gaza.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck off the coast of the southern Philippines, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning for the country and some regions of Indonesia, according to local authorities. The tsumani alert has since been lifted.

The earthquake comes just 10 days after another deadly earthquake hit the central Philippines, killing at least 79 people and injuring hundreds.

Here is more about what has happened and why the country is so vulnerable to earthquakes and natural disasters.

Where did the earthquake hit and why is there a tsunami warning?

The earthquake struck at a depth of 43 kilometres (27 miles) at 9:43am local time (01:43 GMT) on Friday, off the coast of Manay town in Davao Oriental in the Mindanao region of the southern Philippines, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Phivolcs said the earthquake had been caused by movement in the Philippine Trench at a depth of 23 kilometres (14 miles). The Philippine Trench is a long, narrow depression in the ocean. It is located to the east of the Philippines.

Phivolcs also warned of aftershocks and issued a tsunami warning for the surrounding region, saying it expected waves larger than 1 metre (3.3ft). Coastal residents have been “strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move farther inland”, the agency said soon after the earthquake struck.

The United States National Tsunami Warning Center also issued tsunami warnings to parts of Indonesia and Palau, expecting waves of 0.3 to 1 metre (1-3.3ft) above tide level in these regions.

However, at about noon in the Philippines (04:00 GMT), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said the tsunami threat had passed, according to the Reuters News Agency.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said it had detected small tsunami waves in North Sulawesi province with heights ranging from 3.5 to 17 centimetres (1.3 to 6.7 inches) in Melonguane, Beo, Essang and Ganalo in the Talaud Islands districts. The agency has since lifted its tsunami warning.

Have there been any casualties?

Davao Oriental governor Nelson Dayanghirang told the Philippines’ ABS-CBN news channel that at least two people had died as a result of the earthquake.

“So far, we have recorded two casualties, and we have evacuated the patients to our hospital, provincial and district hospitals,” he said. At least 250 patients were also evacuated from a damaged hospital and are to be housed in tents, he added.

What damage is there?

Richie Diuyen, a disaster official in Manay, close to the epicentre, said the quake lasted for 30-40 seconds and some houses, the facade of a church, roads and bridges were damaged.

“We couldn’t stand earlier. I am 46 years old now, and this is the strongest earthquake I ever felt,” Diuyen told the Reuters news agency.

“The damage is quite big,” she added.

The governor of Davao Del Norte told Philippines’ radio station DZMM that people and employees in the region’s capital Tagum “are really panicking”.

“And there are also buildings with damage that have been reported [to us],” he added.

ABS-CBN reported that students at Bukidnon State University in Malaybalay City rushed out of their classrooms when the quake struck. Schools were also closed in many areas.

Jun Saavedra, a disaster-mitigation officer of Governor Generoso town in Davao Oriental, told The Associated Press that power was cut after the earthquake.

“I was driving my car when it suddenly swayed and I saw powerlines swaying wildly. People darted out of houses and buildings as the ground shook and electricity came off,” he said.

What rescue efforts have been made?

Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said a search and rescue mission has been deployed to affected regions.

He warned people to “follow all instructions” from local disaster authorities. “Your safety is our top priority,” he said.

The president added that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) plans to send food and other aid items to affected areas, and said that the Department of Health (DOH) will provide medical help.

The Office of the Vice President said its Mindanao satellite offices are ready to assist people and also provide psychological help to people and young children who are scared or anxious after the earthquake.

Why is the Philippines prone to earthquakes and is the country prepared?

The Philippines lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire, a tectonic belt of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches in the Pacific Ocean.

John Dale B Dianala, assistant professor at the National Institute of Geological Sciences, the University of the Philippines in Diliman, told Al Jazeera that just by virtue of the geographic and geologic setting of the country, the Philippines is home to many onshore and offshore tectonic faults.

“The whole length of the Philippines, around 1,800km, is right along the boundary of two major tectonic plates – the Philippine Sea plate and Eurasian plate – part of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire. These two plates, thousands of kilometres wide, have been pushing against each other for millions of years at two to three times the rate of fingernail growth,” he said.

“Each earthquake is a manifestation of the periodic release of the stress along long fractures on these plates – what geologists call ‘faults’ – which rupture several metres of movement along a fault in large earthquakes.

“When the displacement involves vertical uplift of the seafloor from an offshore fault, like in the Philippine Trench to the east of the country, the movement displaces the water column from the depths of the ocean that then propagate to the surface and coasts in the form of tsunamis. Strong shaking can also cause submarine landslides that can also trigger tsunamis,” he added.

According to Dianala, another big issue the country faces is the cascading effect of different natural hazards.

“The week after the earthquake in Cebu, we had floods and another earthquake in Mindanao. At some point, resources can get spread thinly,” he said.

Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States, Canada, Russia, Guatemala, Peru and Chile are also countries located within the Ring of Fire.

How prepared is the Philippines for these natural disasters?

While Phivolcs and the United Nations have been building systems to alert people about upcoming natural disasters, some politicians in the country say the president should be doing more.

According to ABS-CBN, after Friday’s earthquake, Jose Alvarez, a Filipino businessman and member of the country’s House of Representatives, said that if the government has extra income, it should be put into the “2025 budget” so that President Marcos Jr could access it and respond to natural disasters effectively.

“So that’s important in 2026, if we still have more earthquakes, more typhoons, more floods,” he said.

However, Dianala said the preparedness and resilience of the country to earthquakes has improved since the 1990s. Prior to that, an earthquake would have caused many more casualties and damage to infrastructure than has been caused this time.

“Earthquakes happen in the country relatively frequently, and that has led to disasters, unfortunately, but has also forced us to make sure we have proper laws and policies from lessons learned,” he said.