Month: April 2026

Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held rare direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, a tentative step towards broader negotiations to end the conflict in Lebanon, which has complicated the Trump administration’s fragile ceasefire with Iran. Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s envoy to the United States, met his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Mahadeh, at the State Department on Tuesday morning in talks mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio sought to temper expectations of Tuesday’s negotiations, noting in brief remarks that complexities would not be resolved in the coming hours and that the…

As US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepare to sit down in the coming weeks, negotiations on deliverables and scheduling have accelerated, including a possible visit to Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and a military parade, according to several people familiar with the planning process. The lead-up for such a consequential summit has been compressed and rather disjointed given the Middle East war and Trump’s preference for making last-minute decisions based on his “gut”. “This will be so interesting,” said one person knowledgeable about planning details. “You have…

Chinese President Xi Jinping ‌called for a more robust, resilient and dynamic ‌strategic partnership with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, as Beijing intensified what observers have described as its “quiet but pragmatic” diplomacy during the Iran crisis. In a meeting with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu ‌Dhabi, Xi unveiled a four-point proposal to safeguard Middle East stability, stressing the importance of national sovereignty, the international rule of law and the central role of the United Nations. “The authority of the international…

Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, its largest production base, has the potential to build humanoid robots in future, the company’s China president says, with its manufacturing efficiency and innovative capability seen as potential drivers of CEO Elon Musk’s hopes of commercialising the technology swiftly. Allan Wang Hao said in a media briefing on Tuesday that the Shanghai Gigafactory could provide a “golden key” to the mass production of robots designed to resemble and move like humans. “Like other Tesla factories, Giga Shanghai can shoulder important responsibilities in manufacturing all new products, including…

Negotiating teams from America and Iran could return to Islamabad as early as the end of this week, days after 21 hours of talks in the Pakistani capital ended without a deal, Reuters reported. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that “we’ve been called by the other side” and “they want to work a deal”. A limited or temporary settlement remained possible as the two sides were cautiously approaching a de-escalation despite a total deficit of trust, according to analysts. Advertisement But they warned that the path forward hinged…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its global economic growth forecast, including for China, citing shocks from the US-Israeli war in Iran. In its flagship World Economic Outlook published on Tuesday, the IMF projected worldwide gross domestic product growth at 3.1 per cent this year, down 0.2 percentage points from its January estimate. China – the world’s second-largest economy – is now expected to expand by 4.4 per cent this year. That would miss the IMF’s January estimate by 0.1 percentage points as the country grapples with a slowing…

Japan is planning to replace some of its attack helicopters with multipurpose drones, prompting warnings from some Chinese media outlets and analysts that this could be seen as a hostile move. The country’s defence budget, which took effect on April 7 for this financial year, allocates 11.1 billion yen (US$70 million) for the procurement of five wide-area unmanned aerial vehicles. Advertisement Japanese media outlet J-Defence News said this was the first step towards implementing the Defence Build-Up Programme, which was approved in late 2022. Under the programme, the military will…