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After struggling for years to track and punish deforestation across the world's largest rainforest, Brazil is recruiting new allies in the battle to protect the Amazon: bank managers. A new rule taking effect on Wednesday
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Anita Komuves and Andrew R.C. Marshall, ReutersBUDAPEST: US conservatives have long pointed to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as proof that a Western leader can crack down on immigration, defy global institutions and wage war
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John O'Donnell and Andreas Rinke, ReutersGermany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has used surging energy prices to revive its longstanding call for Berlin to turn once more to Russia for cheap energy after scoring
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Helen MacNamara, The IndependentIn the ballad of Morgan McSweeney's stolen phone, the latest verse is a surreal one. Having taken the unusual step of publishing a transcript of the 999 call that Keir Starmer's former
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Paulina Abramovich, Agence France-PresseJust three weeks into his term, Chile's new President Jose Antonio Kast has lost no time in tilting the rudder sharply to the right as he looks to slash spending and crack
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I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up on Tuesday morning and saw the roads of Sharjah looking neat and clean. Despite so much rain, Sharjah Municipality managed to clean all the mess in very
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China’s readiness for an energy shock has helped its financial markets to turn in a world-beating month and has global investors looking to boost their exposure as the Iran war drags on. Oil stockpiles and resilient energy supply chains have been behind the performance in stocks, bonds and the yuan and money managers and dealers say it is starting to drive a positive view about the economy and buying tech and consumer companies. Since the US and Israel’s war on Iran all but stopped the movement of oil and gas from the Arabian Gulf late in February, soaring oil prices have upended global markets. Over that period, China’s benchmark CSI300 equity index has fallen about 4.6%, compared with losses deeper than 10% in India, Japan and South Korea and an almost 8% decline for the S&P 500. The yuan is the steadiest in Asia against the dollar — remaining flat through March — and China’s debt market is without peer, holding firm as other credit markets have sunk. By holding up in a month where there have been few places for investors to hide, the moves have added to the case for owning China as both a short-term shelter and longer-run ballast for global portfolios, which have taken a drubbing of late. “The uniqueness of China’s energy dependence is the differentiation factor,” said Jacky Tang, chief investment officer for emerging markets at Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank. “Because of this, investors prefer to allocate to Chinese assets at this point relative to other markets ... they realised the resilience.” Tang said his portfolio was slightly overweight on China and that some clients were gradually switching some technology exposure to China from Japan and South Korea. Paradoxically, China is the world’s largest importer of oil that passes through the Strait of Hormuz and also one of the best placed to weather the waterway’s closure. Domestic production, a freeze on fuel exports and a pipeline network allow it to diversify away from seaborne imports and source oil and gas from Russia, central Asia and Myanmar. It also boasts an electric vehicle fleet about as large as the rest of the world’s combined, oil stockpiles estimated at seven months of imports and an electricity grid that is almost insulated from imports thanks to domestic coal and renewables. At the same time inflation is low — so the economy can absorb higher prices — while recent indicators have shown improvement. So relative to the rest of the world, what had been a steady growth outlook is suddenly looking impressive. “We feel (the) domestic China economy is going to stay robust, whatever happens,” said William Yuen, a Hong Kong-based investment director at Invesco, who added some exposure to tech and consumer firms last month. “It may have its little ups and downs, but comparing to a lot of other economies in the world, there will be some sort of buffer given how diversified, how self-sustaining the economy has become.” There are other attractive tailwinds and sectors. Investors have already scooped up stocks in China’s renewables industry, a bet on worldwide demand for solar panels, batteries and green energy equipment to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The wall of household savings stashed in bank deposits has kept downward pressure on bond yields. And investors say they believe Chinese authorities are standing by to keep things steady, citing a recent regulatory crackdown aimed at market stability and selling from state investment funds last year, leaving them ready to prop up stocks if they fall. “The ‘slow bull market’ remains the mantra,” said Christopher Wood, Jefferies’ global head of equity strategy, in a note. “The goal remains clear: For the stock market to replace the deflating property market as the main source of wealth generation.”
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In 1971, a specially arranged Pakistan International Airlines aircraft carried US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on a clandestine journey from Islamabad to Peking — an unpublicised flight that redrew the geometry of global power. That secret mission ultimately paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China, unlocking a realignment that defined the Cold War’s final decades. More than half a century later, Pakistan again finds itself standing at a similar inflection point — this time in full public view. Its foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, retraced parts of that corridor to Beijing the other day amid a rapidly escalating conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran that has disrupted global energy markets and strained great-power relations. The parallel is not just symbolic. It reflects a recurring structural reality: Pakistan’s unique ability — and perilous challenge — to act as a bridge in times of geopolitical fracture. Over the past week, Islamabad has quietly re-emerged as a convening point in the Middle East crisis. On March 29, Pakistan hosted a quadrilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Egypt, marking a rare alignment among regional heavyweights. The meeting signalled not just concern over the war’s regional fallout but also a coordinated diplomatic push toward de-escalation. Following the talks, Dar revealed that both Washington and Tehran had expressed “confidence” in Pakistan’s capacity to facilitate engagement where both sides were prepared to consider “meaningful negotiations” hosted in Islamabad. The joint endorsement was unprecedented in recent Middle Eastern diplomacy, where mutual distrust has long blocked even indirect communication. “War benefits none,” Dar told reporters, stressing that “the unity of the Muslim world and the pursuit of peace through dialogue must take precedence over all else.” His statement followed consultations with visiting ministers who, discussed proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had effectively closed to shipping after US and Israeli strikes that began on February 28. Pakistan’s mediation credentials did not materialise overnight. They are rooted in precedent as much as proximity. From its secret facilitation of the US-China rapprochement in 1971 to its behind-the-scenes role during the US-Taliban negotiations in Doha five decades later, Islamabad has often served as a diplomatic bridge when formal pathways collapsed. Its geography — straddling South Asia, the Gulf, and Central Asia — gives Islamabad a natural vantage point. But geography alone does not guarantee influence. What has historically distinguished Pakistan is its ability to maintain working relations across ideological divides: deep strategic coordination with Beijing, a sometimes fragile but enduring relationship with Washington, pragmatic ties with Tehran, and strong security partnerships with Riyadh. Few capitals can claim that spread. Fewer still can exercise it amid simultaneous crises. The next step in Pakistan’s evolving role came two days later in Beijing. Dar’s one-day visit at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi culminated in the joint release of a five-point initiative for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East. The plan called for an immediate ceasefire, a halt to attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure — including energy, desalination, and power facilities — and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to secure global energy supply lines. “The sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of Iran and other Gulf states must be safeguarded,” the joint statement said. “Dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable means to resolve disputes.” Wang Yi praised Pakistan’s “untiring efforts and mediation diplomacy,” emphasising that restoring freedom of navigation through Hormuz was not simply a matter of regional security but of global economic survival. He described the initiative as part of a growing “China-Pakistan community with a shared future,” hinting at a long-term alignment between Beijing’s economic imperatives and Islamabad’s regional influence. For China, whose economy depends heavily on Iranian crude imports and whose Belt and Road energy corridors traverse Pakistan, stable shipping routes are non negotiable. The inclusion of Hormuz in the framework’s language reflects that urgency. The underlying calculus is not only geopolitical — it is deeply economic. China’s dependence on Iranian oil, coupled with its dominance in rare earth processing, intersects with American vulnerabilities in supply chains crucial to defence, semiconductor production, and clean energy transition. A prolonged blockade of Hormuz threatens to derail both energy security and inflation control in Western economies, intensifying US pressure to find an off ramp. For Islamabad, this emerging energy security matrix provides both opportunity and risk. The ability to convey a US origin fifteen point ceasefire proposal to Tehran underscores Pakistan’s usefulness to both Washington and Beijing. Yet it also places the country in a cross current, balancing between competing strategic priorities while trying to avoid being turned into an instrument of either. Diplomatic signals suggest that time is increasingly scarce with military posturing continuing in the Gulf. Against this backdrop, Pakistan’s proposal for confidence building measures — including monitored energy shipments and humanitarian corridors — seeks to slow a slide toward full scale confrontation. But success depends on sequencing: trust must precede negotiation, and yet delays heighten the risk of irreversible escalation. That delicate balance is why both Beijing and Islamabad are pressing for early engagement, citing the symbolic power of initiating a ceasefire. “Every hour lost brings new dangers,” Dar reportedly told Wang Yi, according to diplomatic notes. “Peace is still possible — but the clock is ticking.” The historical echo is unmistakable. In 1971, Pakistan’s facilitation produced the Nixon Mao handshake — an act of creative diplomacy that redefined global power alignments for half a century. Today, Islamabad’s task is not to enable a rapprochement between two superpowers but to stabilise a multi actor conflict threatening vital global trade arteries. Whether this latest initiative succeeds may ultimately matter less than the fact that Pakistan is again attempting to operate within this narrow corridor of opportunity. The distinction between a facilitator and a true mediator will hinge on whether Islamabad can influence outcomes rather than merely transmit messages. Still, the optics alone are significant. A nuclear armed state of 240mn people, situated at the crossroads of Asia and the Middle East, is once again demonstrating its capacity to shape diplomatic currents far beyond its borders. It is a reminder of continuity: how Pakistan’s geography, its alliances, and its persistent diplomatic instinct to mediate place it at recurring pivot points of history. As the Gulf crisis deepens, Islamabad’s challenge is to transform that position from symbolic to substantive — to convert access into agency, communication into consensus. The writer is Deputy Managing Editor
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It took less than a month for the US-Israel war on Iran to erupt into a crisis of staggering magnitude — one now threatening to destabilize entire economies and push the most vulnerable nations toward
