Pakistan and Turkey will deploy forces to Saudi Arabia under their new trilateral defense pact as the war in Yemen continues to escalate several months after it was reignited by Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport. The Mecca defense pact between Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia was signed back in August, and as Ansar […]

Kazakhstan has asked Moscow to help bring home citizens who say they were pressured into signing military contracts to fight in Ukraine. The request puts a fresh spotlight on the vulnerability of Central Asian migrants to Russia’s military enlistment efforts.

I have watched Pakistan-Afghanistan relations long enough to distrust easy headlines, and last week’s news produced a few of them. At the Center-2026 (Tsentr-2026) war games in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, Taliban officers stood among the foreign observers. Reports say it was the first time Moscow had invited a Taliban military delegation since the movement returned […]

The post Russia courts the Taliban without dropping Pakistan appeared first on Asia Times.

The prolonged closure of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has brought cross-border trade to a standstill, leaving tens of thousands of people on both sides without work. It has also disrupted commercial activity and strained longstanding family and social ties.

Historian Margaret MacMillan warns that increasingly interconnected wars are increasing the risk of a wider conflict, as she discusses Ukraine’s future, Putin’s Russia, NATO’s vulnerabilities, and an emerging “new world disorder.”

RT | October 2, 2026

Yemen’s Houthis have denied targeting a power station in the city of Medina. A Saudi-led coalition earlier accused the militant group of targeting the facility supplying power to the Prophet’s Mosque – one of the holiest sites in the Muslim world.

A senior Houthi official branded the accusation a “lie” aimed at tarnishing the group’s image and reinforcing similar claims made by the coalition in the past.

On Thursday, the Saudi coalition’s spokesman, Major General Turki al-Maliki, accused the Yemeni militants of striking the Taibah electricity distribution station in Medina earlier this week in what he called a “cowardly terrorist act” and a part of an alleged broader campaign by the Houthis to “target the Two Holy Mosques.”

In mid-September, Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis of launching a drone towards the holy city of Mecca. The unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted and destroyed, it added. The Yemeni movement’s leader, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, dismissed that claim as a “heinous lie” in a televised address at the time, claiming Riyadh was “weaponizing lies” to advance its own agenda.

The developments have sparked concerns in Türkiye and Pakistan, which signed a joint defense agreement with Saudi Arabia in August. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called any “threat to the sanctity” of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina a “red line that must never be crossed.”

Ankara denounced this week’s alleged Medina attack. “Any attack targeting the sanctity, peace, and security of the Two Holy Mosques is an unacceptable affront directed at the shared sensitivities of the entire Islamic world,” the Turkish government spokesman, Burhanettin Duran, said on X on Friday. He vowed that Türkiye “will continue to stand by Saudi Arabia.”

The developments come amid the continued escalation between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition. Riyadh has backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since intervening in the country’s civil war in 2015.

Large-scale fighting largely subsided after a UN-brokered truce in 2022, but the conflict erupted again this summer after an airport in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sanaa was bombed to prevent a returning Houthi delegation that had flown to Iran from landing.

Tajikistan has begun receiving oil and petroleum products from Iran in a move to diversify supplies long dominated by Russia. The volume, price, and route of the shipments remain unknown, raising questions about the commercial scale of the trade and potential US secondary sanctions risks.

Tensions persist between Kabul and Islamabad, accompanied by an information war, psychological pressure, and border and political clashes. Introduction Pakistan has long held connections with various Afghan political factions. Pakistan, over the 1960s and 1970s, progressively supported religious and political groups that were against the Afghan government, aiming to establish an opposing force to its […]

Pakistani air strikes hit targets in Afghanistan's Kunar and Helmand provinces overnight on October 1. Pakistani authorities said they were targeting militants operating near the border, but Afghan witnesses said civilians were among the dead, including children.

The Lenin District Court in Bishkek found activist and politician Mavlyan Askarbekov guilty and sentenced to two years in prison on offenses related to a law on incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or interregional hatred, a verdict he called "absurd."

Pakistan carried out a round of air strikes on October 1 on two Afghan provinces near the border based on "credible evidence" of militant activity in the area.

For years, Pakistan’s claim that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan operates from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan produced a familiar exchange: Islamabad accused, Kabul denied, and each new militant attack triggered another round of recrimination. That pattern is becoming harder to sustain. The sanctuary dispute can now be tested against a growing body of evidence rather than competing claims […]

The post Afghanistan’s TTP sanctuary is becoming harder to deny appeared first on Asia Times.

Afghan refugees being held at a camp in Qatar have been told it will be kept open for another nine months after a deadline for its closure passed, but they face continuing uncertainty over their fate amid an ongoing bar on entry to the United States.

Depuis ce matin, la France impose un nouveau modèle de bail. Une ligne de ce modèle peut annuler votre contrat. Et personne — ni votre notaire, ni votre mairie, ni l'État qui l'a écrite — ne peut vous dire en trente secondes si elle vous concerne. Bonne rentrée locative.

Le décret du 6 juillet est entré en vigueur. Quatre articles. Il remplace les contrats types de 2015 et s'applique à tout bail conclu ou renouvelé à compter d'aujourd'hui. Parmi les mentions nouvelles, une seule mérite qu'on s'arrête : le cas échéant, le bail doit indiquer que le logement est grevé d'une servitude de résidence principale.

Mes amis du Pays-des-Cartésiens, arrêtons-nous sur le cas échéant.

Le cas échéant ? Le cas échéant. Quel cas ? Celui où la commune a inscrit la servitude dans son plan local d'urbanisme. Qui peut l'inscrire ? Neuf mille trois cent seize communes y ont droit — celles où les résidences secondaires dépassent 20 % du parc, ou qui relèvent de la taxe sur les logements vacants. Combien l'ont fait ? Biarritz, Bayonne, Anglet, Bidart, Boucau. Chamonix, sur la quasi-totalité de ses zones constructibles. Bonifacio, Porto-Vecchio, Santa Maria di Lota. Cancale. Oléron s'y prépare. Et les autres ? On ne sait pas. Où est la liste ? Il n'y a pas de liste.

Comment savoir, alors ? La réponse des professionnels tient en deux gestes : vérifier le PLU de la commune, demander au notaire. Autrement dit : allez lire le règlement d'urbanisme de votre village, ses zonages et ses annexes, pour savoir ce que vous devez écrire dans un contrat de deux feuillets.

Et la sanction ? Elle n'est pas dans le décret — le décret, lui, ne sanctionne rien. Elle est ailleurs, dans le code de l'urbanisme, à l'article L. 151-14-1 créé par la loi Le Meur du 19 novembre 2024 : la servitude doit être expressément mentionnée dans tout acte portant sur le logement qu'elle grève — promesse, vente, bail. À défaut, nullité de l'acte. Miljaardedju. On ne vous punit pas d'avoir mal loué : on efface le contrat.

Arrivée là, je dois vous signaler la plus belle pièce du dossier. Cette servitude ne pèse que sur les logements neufs, en zones urbaines et à urbaniser. Le bâti existant n'est pas concerné. Les meublés de tourisme déjà convertis non plus. Le dispositif inventé pour rendre des logements aux habitants permanents s'applique donc exclusivement aux logements qui n'existent pas encore. On ne récupère rien : on grève l'avenir. C'est une réforme adressée à des murs non bâtis.

Amis libertariens, voyez l'asymétrie — elle est parfaite. Le propriétaire qui n'a pas lu le PLU risque la nullité de son bail ; celui qui loue à l'encontre de la servitude s'expose à une mise en demeure du maire, sous astreinte de mille euros par jour plafonnée à cent mille. L'État qui a créé l'obligation, décentralisé son déclenchement dans neuf mille trois cent seize règlements communaux et n'a publié aucun recensement, lui, ne risque rien. Il a fait son travail : il a imprimé la case. Je cherche l'équivalent chez nous, de l'autre côté de la frontière. Je ne le trouve pas.

Notez au passage que le reste du décret est un théâtre d'ombres. La clause résolutoire pour troubles de voisinage ? Déjà permise par la loi du 27 juillet 2023, simplement recopiée dans le formulaire, et toujours soumise au juge. Rien de nouveau, sinon la mise en page. Le vrai danger n'est jamais celui qu'on annonce en gros titre ; il est dans la ligne qui commence par le cas échéant.

Compagnons d'absurdistan, une question avant de refermer. Quand l'obligation est écrite à Paris, sa condition de déclenchement dans neuf mille trois cent seize règlements locaux, et sa sanction dans un troisième code, le devoir du citoyen n'est plus d'obéir à la loi : c'est de la deviner. Qu'obtient-on d'un pays où le droit se devine ?

On obtient des gens qui ne louent plus.

America has become an imperial power that aims to invade and dominate the weak countries. This tendency has created global insecurity and led America to lose wars. In terms of natural resources and firepower, America dominates like no other country. It has the largest and most flexible military, the most weapons, and the most devices […]

Hundreds of Afghan medical students in Pakistan face expulsion, including women and students nearing graduation. Courts in several parts of the country have temporarily allowed them to stay and continue their studies, but their long-term future remains uncertain.

When Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed to a mutual defense pact in August, it was principally seen as a political commitment. The “Mecca alliance,” as it was dubbed, stipulated that an armed attack on one would be treated as an attack on all three, accompanied by deeper military cooperation. That pact is no longer […]

The post Baptism of Houthi fire for Mecca mutual defense pact appeared first on Asia Times.

Three of the four Afghans who left their country to compete last week in the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, were detained at the border on Monday when they returned to Afghanistan, where chess is banned by the Taliban government. The players are under house arrest in Kabul and face penalties that could include corporal punishment. The fourth player has been able to return home without reprisals.

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Kyrgyzstan is set to send a domestically produced satellite into orbit on October 1, marking the Central Asian state's first feat of spacefaring. Uzbekistan has announced its own plans for a domestic satellite.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the country’s main opposition party, announced a long march to the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday, October 4, as part of its ongoing nationwide movement to demand the release of its leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The march, which was originally scheduled to be held on Sunday, September 27, starting from Peshawar, was postponed on Friday after the party’s top leadership decided it needed more time to mobilize to face the state’s preparations to block it.

Thousands of people have been taking to the streets in different parts of the country demanding the immediate release of Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and other party leaders.

Khan’s party and supporters have also accused the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government in the country of deliberately ignoring Khan’s bad health condition and trying to “slowly kill him in prison” by keeping him in solitary confinement.

They have also alleged that Khan has been denied access to his family members and party colleagues in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail for almost six months now and demanded that he be transferred out of the jail to a private hospital.

State repression

Meanwhile, the security forces have fortified the capital, blocking all the ways leading to the capital with shipping containers and large deployments after the government called the protests illegal and threatened consequences for the PTI leadership.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had earlier called the march a failure and “a drama” and warned that if the PTI does not abandon its plan to go to Islamabad the state will find a “permanent solution” to stop them.

The security forces had arrested a large number of PTI leaders and workers in order to derail the protests. The PTI last week said that even its elected members of the National Assembly were arrested.

Three of Khan’s sisters Aleema, Uzma, and Noreen Khan were also arrested by the Pakistani authorities last week and jailed for 30 days on charges of being an alleged “threat to public order.”

The PTI released a statement on Monday, September 28, claiming Khan’s sisters have not been allowed to meet their family members or lawyers at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Calling the situation of their incarceration “alarming” and a violation of their fundamental rights.

The previous mobilization to Islamabad in November 2024 had also witnessed large-scale state repression leading to clashes between the security forces and the PTI workers. Over a dozen people, including four security officials, were killed in those clashes.

Three years of incarceration 

Khan, largely considered the most popular political leader in Pakistan’s politics today, was first arrested almost a year after he was ousted from his Prime Minister’s post in May 2023. He led the Pakistan government from August 2018 to April 2022.

The interim government that assumed power after his removal filed over a hundred cases against Khan, accusing him of the misuse of power, corruption, and violence against the security forces during the May 9, 2023 protests.

However, he was released after a court ruled his arrest was illegal only to be arrested again on August 5, this time after a district court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case, related to the state department that stores valuable gifts given to Pakistani officials by foreign dignitaries. Later his wife Bushra Bibi was also arrested.

Though a higher court later overturned his conviction, he and his wife have remained in Adiala Jail facing charges and even convictions in several other cases. 

Many leaders in Khan’s party, PTI, were either arrested or forced to denounce the party and politics in public altogether. 

Despite the fact that the PTI was blocked from contesting national elections in February 2024, it emerged as the largest opposition group in the country’s National Assembly after it decided to field its candidates as independents. 

PTI and Khan’s supporters maintain that the cases against Khan and his wife were politically motivated and fake.  

Ammar Ali Jan, leader of the Left wing Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) and a member of the Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (Movement to Save Pakistan’s Constitution or TTAP) formed as a broader alliance to fight for Khan’s release has condemned the continued incarceration of Khan and the repression of movements for his release. 

He also questioned the state’s narrative about the failure of the movement, pointing out how it has made every effort to oppress it, including the arrests and fortification of the capital.