Category World News

Russia has urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to exercise restraint after deadly fighting erupted along the border for two days, killing dozens and halting bilateral trade in what has amounted to the worst clashes in recent memory.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it was closely monitoring the events and that “the situation is stabilising”, following similar statements from China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“We welcome this process,” the ministry added.

Tensions rose on Thursday, when the Taliban blamed Pakistan for explosions in Kabul and the eastern province of Paktika.

Two days later, on Saturday night, Taliban forces attacked various Pakistani military outposts. As Pakistani forces retaliated, the two sides exchanged gun, artillery and drone fire through early Sunday morning and fought sporadically throughout the day.

The two sides have reported conflicting death tolls. Pakistan’s military said 23 of its soldiers were dead and claimed to have killed 200 Taliban and affiliated fighters, while Afghanistan said its forces killed 58 Pakistani soldiers.

By Monday, Pakistani troops were stationed on high alert along the closed border with Afghanistan, where hundreds of people and trucks loaded with goods remained stranded.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “greatly values dialogue and diplomacy”, but warned that “any further provocations would be met with an unwavering and befitting response”.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. Since then, Islamabad has accused the Taliban of allowing the Pakistan Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate within Afghan borders – a charge Kabul denies.

Russia, meanwhile, has sought to boost its influence in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of United States troops that led to the Taliban’s rise.

In 2022 and 2024, a Taliban delegation attended Russia’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum. In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the Taliban as “allies in the fight against terrorism” – namely the ISIL affiliate in Khorasan Province, ISKP, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere.

Plans for United States President Donald Trump to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October remain intact, despite resurgent trade tensions between the two countries, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says.

Speaking to Fox Business Network on Monday, Bessent said the US and China had “substantially de-escalated” after a series of tit-for-tat trade moves that threatened to strain relations and trigger a new trade war between Washington and Beijing.

The comments came after Trump, angered by China’s October 9 decision to expand export controls on key rare earth minerals, announced an additional 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods set to take effect on November 1.

But there have since been “substantial communications” between the two sides, with additional staff-level meetings expected this week, said Bessent.

“The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we’ll see where it goes,” said Bessent, adding that the “100 percent tariff does not have to happen” if the two sides work out their disagreements in negotiations.

He added that he expected a planned meeting between Trump and Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea in late October to go ahead. “He [Trump] will be meeting with [Communist] Party Chair Xi in Korea,” said Bessent. “I believe that meeting will still be on.”

Bessent stressed that Trump and Xi have “a very good relationship” and suggested that Beijing’s latest policy on rare earth elements could have originated from a lower-level official rather than Xi himself.

The comments echo Trump’s seemingly conciliatory message the day before, in which he assured “all will be fine” with US-China relations.

“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The USA wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”

The softer tone soothed a jittery Wall Street and sparked a strong rebound in US stocks at the start of trading in New York on Monday, after Trump’s tariff announcement on Friday sparked a big sell-off.

‘Pointed a bazooka’

Despite the apparent rapprochement, Bessent slammed China’s new export controls as provocative and said the US pushed back aggressively.

“They have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world,” said Bessent. “And, you know, we’re not going to have it. China is a command and control economy. They are neither going to command [nor] control us.”

He added that the US has been in touch with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and allies in Asia.

China has defended its new export curbs, which require foreign companies to get Beijing’s approval to export products containing Chinese rare earth elements, and to disclose their intended use.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said the heightened restrictions were introduced in response to a series of US measures since the two countries’ trade talks held in Madrid, Spain last month, including Washington’s decision to blacklist Chinese firms and impose port fees on China-linked ships.

Beijing accused Washington of “provocative and damaging” actions and called Trump’s tariff threat a “typical example of double standards”.

China has a near monopoly over rare earth minerals, critical for the manufacture of technology such as electric cars, smartphones, semiconductors and weapons.

As United States President Donald Trump addressed the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire deal, he saluted American diplomats, generals and regional states involved in the agreement.

Miriam Adelson, a pro-Israel mega-donor, also received a shout-out from the US president on Monday. Trump noted that she has “$60bn in her account” and that “she loves Israel”.

“Look at her sitting there so innocently,” he said.

“I’m going to get her in trouble with this — but I actually asked her once, ‘So Miriam: I know you love Israel. What do you love more, the United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer. That means that might be an issue, I must say,” he added, to dimmed laughter in the chamber.

Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate, poured $106m into Preserve America, her pro-Trump super PAC, an election group that helped elect Trump last year.

On Monday, she sat in the gallery at the Knesset and received a standing ovation as Trump praised her support for Israel, noting she had taken “more trips to the White House than anybody else”.

From doctor to kingmaker

Born in Tel Aviv in 1945 after her parents immigrated from Poland, Adelson trained as a physician specialising in addiction treatment.

In 1991, she married Sheldon Adelson, a self-made casino billionaire who had built the Las Vegas Sands into a gambling empire with resorts across Asia and the US.

When they married, Miriam already controlled the larger share of the casino company’s stock, but after Sheldon’s death in 2021, she took majority control of Las Vegas Sands, which operates major casinos in Singapore and Macao.

Sheldon Adelson was one of the top Republican Party donors, giving millions to pro-Israel candidates.

The family sold their iconic Las Vegas Strip properties, including the Venetian resort, for $6.25bn in 2022.

In 2023, Miriam Adelson also acquired majority ownership in the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

Shaping Trump’s Israel policy

Trump often describes how the Adelsons would visit him at the White House during his first term, demanding pro-Israel policies.

He repeated that assertion on Monday. “Miriam and Sheldon would come into the [Oval] Office. They’d call me. I think they had more trips to the White House than anybody else,” Trump said.

The Adelsons have long had significant influence among US conservatives.

As committed Zionists and with links to right-wing figures and issues in the US, the Adelsons became Republican mega-donors in the 2010s, giving more than $600m to support Trump’s three presidential campaigns and to back other Republican candidates since 2015.

Miriam’s position hardened after the October 7 attacks. She wrote a column in Israel Hayom – one of Israel’s most widely read newspapers, which she owns – calling for dismissing Israel’s critics across the world.

“Foreign fans of Hamas are our enemies, the ideological enablers in the West of those who would go to any length to eradicate us from the Middle East. And, as such, they should be dead to us,” she said.

Her backing for Trump and the GOP has won her strong connections with the White House.

The couple pushed Trump to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2016 and to recognise Israeli control over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights during his first term. Trump awarded Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

At a September campaign event, Adelson told Jewish voters they have a “sacred duty” to support Trump, “in gratitude for everything he has done and trust in everything he will yet do”.