Trump calls Colombia’s Petro ‘a drug leader,’ says US aid will end payments
President Donald Trump on Sunday said he will halt financial aid and subsidies to Colombia, citing the South American country’s failure to curb its growing cocaine production. Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro “an illegal drug leader” and accused him of “strongly encouraging the massive production of narcotics” across the country, adding that it “has become the biggest business’ in Colombia. TRUMP REFUSES TO RULE OUT STRIKING VENEZUELA. WHAT’S NEXT FOR TRUMP’S WAR ON DRUGS? “Petro does nothing to stop it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that U.S. payments and subsides aimed at helping Colombia address drug production are “nothing more than a long-term rip-off of America.” “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLUMBIA,” Trump added. Trump warned that Colombian drugs are “causing death, destruction and havoc” as his administration steps up efforts to tighten the border and fight the nation’s ongoing drug epidemic. TRUMP ADMIN REVOKES COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT’S VISA OVER ALLEGED ‘RECKLESS AND INCENDIARY ACTIONS’ Trump also warned that Petro “better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” The Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, and the White House did not respond to a separate request for further comment. Last month, the Trump administration revoked Petro’s U.S. visa following “reckless and incendiary actions” in New York City. TRUMP RELEASES VIDEO OF DRONE STRIKE ON ‘DRUG-CARRYING’ SUB Petro has also strongly criticized the Trump administration for authorizing deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean that U.S. officials said were transporting narcotics. “Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials who are from the U.S. even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump,” Petro said during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly. He added that the boat’s passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, as the Trump administration claimed after the first attack.
Inside the minds of older, left-wing women driving new voting bloc of ‘Resistance Grandmas’ opposing Trump
FIRST ON FOX: A Trump-aligned political consulting firm set out to investigate the ideological swing of affluent, college-educated white women who were once considered moderate, but have since moved farther to the left, uncovering what researchers describe as a new voting bloc of left-wing women: “Resistance Grandmas.” “We are so knowledgeable about everything,” one woman said in a Northern Virginia focus group video reviewed by Fox News Digital, referring to herself and the other women who joined the session while slamming President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” “When [Trump voters] start being personally impacted, that’s when I’m hopeful that a little bit of something is gonna change.” “It’s gonna be a catastrophe,” another woman chimed in, as another middle-aged woman added, “However, they will find a way to blame Democrats.” Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a report conducted by the National Public Affairs (NPA), the polling arm of Trump campaign-aligned American Made Media Company, in September, as well as the full two-hour focus group session in northern Virginia that showcased the beliefs of 10 white, liberal, middle-aged, college-educated, upper–middle-class suburban women. SQUAD 2.0: MEET AMERICA’S NEXT WAVE OF RADICAL DEMOCRATS SHAPING THE PARTY’S FUTURE The women who participated in the focus group were not informed it was conducted by a Trump-aligned polling firm, they were only told that they were brought in to discuss political topics for a focus group commissioned by another research firm. The researcher leading the focus group told the women at the start of the meeting that she had “no stake” in their comments “one way or the other,” and that the women “could say whatever comes to mind.” “Pretty much anything is fair game,” the focus group leader told the women. Fox News Digital is not publishing footage of the video or names of the women but reviewed extensive footage of the session for the purposes of this article. The focus group was conducted to study how affluent middle-aged and older white women have increasingly shifted to the political left in recent years, and was sparked by a racist sign displayed outside a Northern Virginia school board meeting in August targeting Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears. “In the year since President Trump’s historic victory, commentators have obsessed over what they call the radicalization of young white men. But a quieter, just as revealing transformation has swept another group once known for moderation and civility: older, affluent white women. This change came into sharp focus last August in Arlington, Virginia,” NPA’s report outlines. The Virginia gubernatorial cycle is at a fever pitch, with the election just over two weeks away pitting ex-CIA agent and former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger against Republican Earle-Sears. In August, a white woman was spotted holding a Jim Crow-era-reminiscent sign targeting Earle-Sears, who is Black, when the candidate attended a school board meeting. “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain,” the sign read, igniting outrage from conservatives and others who called it racist. CALIFORNIANS EXPERIENCING A ‘RED SHIFT’ OF LOCAL DEMOCRATS BECOMING REPUBLICANS AMID MIGRANT CRISIS, CRIME The women in the focus group overwhelmingly characterized the sign as written in poor taste, describing its words as “ugly,” but also justified it by arguing Republicans have “already taken it too far with their trans bans.” Another woman used the N-word while comparing the sign to those of the segregated Jim Crow era of the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries in the American South. “What’s the best analogy for a trans person not being able to use a particular bathroom in our recent modern history?” one participant asked the group. Another woman chimed in: “You used to have hotels that said ‘No n—-rs, no Jews, no dogs at these hotels. Is that… I don’t know if that’s the same thing.” “Like, I don’t think I would feel uncomfortable, and I definitely wouldn’t hold up that sign,” the first woman said in response. “But this person, I think, was just trying to find an appropriate analogy.” The NPA report explained that polling data since the 2012 election, which pitted former Democrat President Barack Obama against Republican Mitt Romney, showed that “voting patterns among white voters and women haven’t moved much in a decade.” The shift to the left, the report argued, is not due to gender or race, but rather income and education. “In 2012, college graduates leaned Republican, 51-47, while postgraduates favored Democrats 55-42. By 2024, that pattern had flipped and widened: Harris won college grads 53-45 and postgrads 59-38. Non-college voters went the other way. High-school grads and those with some college, once evenly split, gave Trump a 56-43 lead,” the report found. “Income followed suit. Voters earning under $50,000, once a 60-38 Obama bloc, shifted to a 50-48 Trump edge. Those earning over $100,000 flipped from a 54-44 Romney majority to a 51-47 Harris win,” it continued. The report took issue with the media asking and diving into explanations on “what ‘broke’ young white men” to move farther to the right and help re-elect Trump in 2024, but argued the question should instead be: “What radicalized rich white women, and whether they even realize it.” The women in the focus group overwhelmingly presented themselves as arbiters of knowledge, reporting that they have the “luxury” of reading news articles from different outlets, while other voters are more concerned about costs of living and putting food on the table. DEMOCRATS ARE MAKING A CRITICAL MISTAKE — AND VOTERS ARE LETTING THEM KNOW One woman in the group recounted that her cousin living in a Heartland state was a lifelong Democrat who announced ahead of the 2024 election that he was leaning towards voting for Trump, which the woman said made her nearly fall “off my chair.” The cousin, a male farmer, reported to her that the Biden administration had not helped U.S. farmers. “He doesn’t know. He’s not paying attention to China’s not buying wheat or soybeans,” the female voter said. “He’s just concerned about
FBI agents from ’93 WTC attack blast Mamdani for embracing radical imam
Two retired FBI agents who investigated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing told Fox News Digital New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is “foolish” to campaign with an imam linked to the attack’s mastermind. Mamdani attended prayers Friday at Masjid at-Taqwa on Fulton Street in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, later posting a smiling photo with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn cleric who served as a character witness for the mastermind of the bombing and has been a longtime defender of convicted terrorists, raising funds for their legal defenses. “Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community,” wrote Mamdani, who was a toddler when terrorists parked a bomb-laden van in the garage beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Retired FBI agent Frank Pellegrino, who investigated the Feb. 26, 1993 attack, said seeing the frontrunner to be the city’s next mayor with Wahhaj left him disgusted. “Zohran Mamdani’s embrace of Siraj Wahhaj is an example of Mamdani’s ignorance of history. Either he doesn’t know who Wahhaj is or he doesn’t care. Whichever it is, Mamdani looks foolish,” Pellegrino said. MAMDANI FLIP-FLOPS ON KEY HAMAS POSITION ONE DAY AFTER REFUSING TO CALL ON IT TO DISARM John Anticev, another retired FBI agent who was the lead case agent on the 1993 attack, told Fox News Digital Mamdani should know better than to court an endorsement from someone like Wahhaj. “Everybody who is in politics should be aware of the people whose endorsement they’re getting,” Anticev said. “Imam Siraj Wahhaj has been a cleric who has endorsed a radical agenda.” Wahhaj, born Jeffrey Kearse, founded the Brooklyn mosque in 1991 and has a long history of controversy. Following the World Trade Center attack, prosecutors noted he sponsored appearances by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called “Blind Sheikh” who was later convicted of masterminding the plot. Wahhaj wasn’t charged with any crimes and has denied involvement in the attack. Wahhaj also raised legal-defense funds for El Sayyid Nosair, who assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1990 and was also convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the 1993 bombing. Wahhaj didn’t respond to a request for comment. In court, Wahhaj served as a character witness for Abdel Rahman, calling him a “respected scholar.” In witness testimony, he also admitted raising legal defense funds for Nosair, who was initially acquitted in the killing of Kahane, but is now serving a life sentence. For Muslims who oppose Wahhaj’s ideological interpretation of political Islam, called Islamism, Mamdani’s alliance with Wahhaj is a disturbing window into what his mayoral term could bring, with his allegiances to groups and leaders with Islamist sympathies and anti-American and anti-semitic views. Muslim scholar Dalia Ziada, Washington, D.C., coordinator and research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, said Wahhaj represents the same Islamist ideology that fueled decades of extremism in the Middle East. “I am particularly concerned to see mosques used as political rallying platforms in the free and democratic United States,” she said. “By embracing Wahhaj, Zohran Mamdani is sidelining moderate Muslims and normalizing an extremist ideology that once inspired terror on American soil and still fuels radicalization within segments of the Muslim community today.” Soraya Deen, founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement and a co-founder of the Clarity Coalition, a network of Muslims, ex-Muslims and allies challenging Islamist extremism, heard Wahhaj for the first time 20 years ago in a talk to Muslim youth in Los Angeles. “I was stunned and bewildered by his call to destroy America and make Islam great,” she said. MAMDANI SPARKS ONLINE FRENZY OVER RESPONSE TO WHETHER HE ENDORSES NY GOV HOCHUL: ‘HUMILIATING’ Deen called the photo of Mamdani with Wahhaj disturbing, noting, “A theologian spewing hatred for the United States — and Mamdani smiling beside him, calling him ‘one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders’ — is dangerous for America and dangerous for Muslims.” In the photo, there isn’t a woman to be seen, because Wahhaj also practices the interpretation of Islam that denies women access to the main hall of mosques, believing they would sexually tempt the men praying inside. Deen said, “Despite the gender jihad women are facing in the Muslim world, Mamdani poses for a photo op that emboldens the men suppressing women’s rights.” In June, a political action committee supporting Mamdani, “New Yorkers for Lower Costs,” accepted $100,000 donations from the “Unity and Justice Fund,” a political action committee tied to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group designated an unindicted coconspirator in the trial of five Holy Land Foundation leaders. The five leaders were convicted of funneling about $12.4 million to Hamas and sentenced to decades in prison. Mamdani has included sympathetic lyrics about the “Holyland Five” in a rap. Earlier this year, Nihad Awad, a co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a close ally of Wahhaj, said he was “happy” about the Oct. 7, 2023, rampage by Hamas terrorists into Israel. Similarly, Wahhaj has preached a philosophy of exploiting America’s democracy to further a conquest for Islam. In 1991, according to a videotape of the event, Wahhaj told a gathering of Muslims: “I just want to say this. Brothers and sisters, in my opinion what the Muslims do in America will have a profound effect on Muslims everywhere on this earth. As long as you remember that if you get involved with politics, you have to be very careful that your leader is for Allah. You don’t get in politics because it’s the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics can be a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.” In 2011, Wahhaj urged Muslims to donate to the legal defense of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist dubbed “Lady Al Qaeda” for attempting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “I think that she is innocent,” he told a Worcester, Massachusetts, fundraiser. “There’s reasonable doubt, and by law, if there’s
Kamala Harris says Biden made ‘big mistake’ by not inviting Musk to EV event in 2021
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said her onetime boss, former President Joe Biden, made a “big mistake” by not inviting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a 2021 White House event on electric vehicles. In August 2021, Biden hosted an EV event at the White House with executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, but Musk was not invited, despite Tesla being the nation’s leading EV manufacturer. “I write in the book that I thought it was a big mistake to not invite Elon Musk when we did a big EV event,” Harris told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on Tuesday at the news outlet’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., referring to her memoir, “107 Days,” in which she criticized Biden for initially running for re-election despite his health struggles. “I mean, here he is, the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space,” Harris said of Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX. WASHINGTON POST SLAMS KAMALA HARRIS BOOK TOUR, SAYS DEMS DON’T ‘HAVE TIME TO WASTE’ ON FORMER VP Musk’s snub was widely viewed as an effort to support the United Auto Workers and organized labor overall, since Tesla plants are not unionized. Harris wrote in her book that she believed Biden was “sending a message about Musk’s anti-union stance” but that she thought excluding him as the top player in the field “simply doesn’t make sense.” Then–White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the event featured “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers,” emphasizing that Tesla’s workers are not unionized. Pressed on whether Musk’s snub was punishment for his workers not being unionized, Psaki told reporters: “I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.” The Biden administration defended inviting only those automakers, calling them key partners in the president’s push for union jobs. Harris said that presidents should “put aside political loyalties” when it comes to recognizing technological innovation. “So, I thought that was a mistake, and I don’t know Elon Musk, but I have to assume that that was something that hit him hard and had an impact on his perspective,” she said. Musk did appear to take offense after he was not invited to the event, taking numerous jabs at Biden. “Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” Musk wrote at the time on social media. A month later, he said the Biden administration appeared to be “controlled by unions” and was “not the friendliest administration.” KAMALA HARRIS BREAKS SILENCE ON BIDEN DROPOUT, ADMITS SHE HAS REGRETS ABOUT HER HANDLING OF SITUATION After Musk learned Tesla would not be invited, administration officials offered an apology, according to The Wall Street Journal. Biden aides later attempted to soothe things over, but tensions remained. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Harris’ comments on Tuesday mirrored a passage from her new book in which she wrote that the Biden administration’s move not to include Tesla was a mistake and that it appeared to alienate Musk, who later became one of current President Donald Trump’s top financial backers. “Musk never forgave it,” she wrote. Musk later endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and contributed roughly $300 million toward Republican campaign efforts.
Protesters nationwide hold ‘No Kings’ rallies amid government shutdown
Significant crowds in major cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., and even in London, were observed on Saturday during the second “No Kings” protest since June against the Trump administration. While some leaders feared the marches could devolve into violence, there were no reports of violence or arrests at the afternoon rallies amid the ongoing government shutdown. Republicans have argued the protests are simply an effort to distract from the current government shutdown battle and appease their base. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told FOX Business he hoped that Democrat leaders who attended would be more willing to accept the GOP’s plan after the demonstrations were over – but he did not sound overly optimistic. NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR HOPEFUL ATTENDS ‘NO KINGS’ PROTEST, VOWS TO FIGHT TRUMP ‘TOOTH AND NAIL’ On Saturday in New York City, the NYPD put out an alert indicating the city had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs taking part, and they did not have to make a single “protest-related” arrest. No arrests were reported in DC, although some reports indicated that protesters spilled into the streets briefly. Other major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Austin had sizable gatherings as well Saturday, but police said demonstrations were largely peaceful. Police in Portland confirmed that at least three people were detained after an alleged assault related to the “No Kings” protests downtown. One person was arrested and booked into jail, according to officials. Two others have been detained pending investigation by Portland Police Bureau officers. Outside Chicago in Broadview, at least fifteen people were arrested by Illinois State Police near an ICE facility. In Denver, police said officers dispersed a small group to deny access to the highway and that several arrests were made. There were also some arrests in smaller cities in various states. MILLIONS EXPECTED TO FLOOD STREETS AT ‘NO KINGS’ PROTESTS TARGETING TRUMP ACROSS ALL 50 STATES Roughly 2,500 “No Kings” protests were held across the U.S. The tone of Saturday’s “No Kings” protests were staunchly anti-Trump, as demonstrators rallied against what they viewed as the president’s authoritarian policies. “California will keep peacefully pushing back against the Trump Administration’s authoritarian takeover,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wrote on X. “It’s a Love America rally,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who spoke at the D.C. rally Saturday, said in response to Johnson and others’ criticism. Following his speech at the D.C. rally, Sanders thanked the “millions” of Americans who turned out Saturday. “Thank you to the millions of Americans who turned out in small communities and big cities all over this country to say loudly and boldly: No more kings. In America, We the People will rule.”
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,333
Here are the key events from day 1,333 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 19 Oct 202519 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Sunday, October 19, 2025: Fighting Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed that its forces captured the village of Pleshchiivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine on the latest claim of territorial gain by Moscow. The Russian Defence Ministry had earlier announced the capture of one village in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two in the northeastern Kharkiv region, closer to the Russian border. Two internally-displaced people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, the Russian-installed regional governor, Vladimir Saldo, said on the Telegram messaging platform. Three people were killed and five others injured following an explosion at an industrial plant related to weapons production in the southwest Russian city of Sterlitamak, Radiy Khabirov, the governor of Bashkortostan, said in a statement on Telegram. The chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, announced on X that repairs have begun on damaged power lines at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Authorities had warned that a four-week outage of power at the plant was endangering the safety of the Russian-controlled facility, which needs power to ensure that reactors are kept cool to avoid a dangerous meltdown. Politics and diplomacy Austria’s Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs announced that it is supporting the European Union’s decision to impose new sanctions against Russia, which require a unanimous vote and have been stymied due to Vienna’s earlier opposition to the plan. Ukrainians said they were disappointed that the United States may not provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles, the Associated Press news agency reported, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Friday. Advertisement Regional security Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Saturday urged Trump to step up efforts to support democracy in her country, arguing that a free Belarus was in Washington’s interests. Adblock test (Why?)
Hamas returns bodies of two more captives, says Israel violating ceasefire
Hamas has turned over the remains of two more deceased Israeli captives from Gaza, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced, as the Palestinian group accused Israel of continuing to commit ceasefire violations and repudiating the commitments made to peace mediators. “Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the bodies of two hostages”, which were returned to Israeli security forces in Gaza, Netanyahu’s office said in a post on the X social media platform early on Sunday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The prime minister’s office said the families of the Israeli captives have been updated on the return of the remains, although no names have been released so far. The office said the two bodies have been transferred to the Israeli National Centre of Forensic Medicine, and “upon completion of the identification process, formal notification will be delivered to the families”. “The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned,” the prime minister’s office added. With the handover late on Saturday, Hamas has now returned the remains of 12 of the 28 captives who died in Gaza, a key demand by Israel in the week-old ceasefire deal to end the two-year war. According to the deal, Hamas was to return all of the Israeli captives – both the living and the dead – within 72 hours of its signing. In exchange, Israel was to release 360 bodies of deceased Palestinians and some 2,000 prisoners. Hamas has said the widespread devastation in the Palestinian territory and the Israeli military’s continuing control of certain parts of Gaza have slowed the recovery of the bodies of deceased captives. Advertisement Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Palestinian authorities do not have adequate equipment to help with the search for captives’ bodies beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. “It’s very difficult, with recovery teams on the ground facing extraordinary challenges. [They have] no bulldozers, no trucks, no cranes and no heavy equipment… to speed up the process and help with the recovery and return of bodies,” Mahmoud said. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, who is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, said that Netanyahu’s government has known “for some time” that the recovery of bodies of captives would be “an incredibly difficult and daunting task”. Netanyahu, however, has accused Hamas of not doing enough to return the remains of the 28 and that all of the bodies need to be returned immediately, Salhut said. “Until that happens, that’s when Israel is going to honour more of the commitments of the ceasefire, like letting in more humanitarian assistance, talking about opening the Rafah border crossing,” she said. Hospital workers transport the remains of a Palestinian prisoner released by Israel under a Gaza ceasefire and captives exchange deal to the morgue of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Saturday [Omar al-Qattaa/AFP] For days, Hamas and Israel have traded blame over violations of the US-mediated ceasefire. On Saturday, Hamas accused the Netanyahu government of “fabricating flimsy pretexts” to not follow through on its commitments to the peace deal, as well as denouncing Israel’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt as “a blatant violation” of the agreement. On Friday, Israeli forces killed 11 members of a single family, including seven children, in an attack east of Gaza City. The Palestinian Embassy in Egypt announced earlier on Saturday that the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for people in Gaza to leave and enter the enclave, would reopen on Monday. But Netanyahu said the border crossing would remain closed until Hamas hands over the bodies of all the deceased Israeli captives. The delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza also remains slow despite the ceasefire deal. On Saturday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it had enough humanitarian food supplies to feed Gaza for three months, but trucks carrying the life-saving cargo are unable to enter Gaza and are stuck in warehouses in Jordan and Egypt. “We must be allowed to get all this aid into Gaza without delay,” UNRWA said, adding that it also has equipment to provide shelter to as many as 1.3 million people. Adblock test (Why?)
Afghanistan, Pakistan agree to immediate ceasefire after talks in Doha
South Asian neighbours also agreed to hold follow-up meetings in coming days to ensure peace deal’s implementation. Published On 19 Oct 202519 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire after talks mediated by Qatar and Turkiye following a week of fierce and deadly clashes along their disputed border. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said early on Sunday that Afghanistan and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire “and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Doha said the two countries also agreed to hold follow-up meetings in the coming days “to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and verify its implementation in a reliable and sustainable manner”. Earlier, both sides said they were holding peace talks in Doha on Saturday as they sought a way forward, after clashes killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the worst violence between the two South Asian neighbours since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. Statement | Pakistan and Afghanistan Agree to an Immediate Ceasefire During a Round of Negotiations in Doha#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/fPXvn6GaU6 — Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) October 18, 2025 “As promised, negotiations with the Pakistani side will take place today in Doha,” Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had said, adding that Kabul’s negotiating team, led by Defence Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, had arrived in the Qatari capital. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier that the country’s defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, had led discussions with representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership. Advertisement “The talks will focus on immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism against Pakistan emanating from Afghanistan and restore peace and stability along the Pak-Afghan border,” the Foreign Office said. Cross-border fighting between the one-time allies and Pakistani air strikes along their contested 2,600km (1,600-mile) frontier were triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in rebels who had stepped up cross-border attacks in Pakistan, saying the fighters were operating from safe havens in Afghanistan. The Taliban has denied giving haven to armed groups to attack Pakistan, and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan and sheltering ISIL (ISIS)-linked fighters who have undermined the country’s stability and sovereignty. Islamabad has denied Kabul’s accusations. Pakistan has accused Kabul of allowing armed groups to reside inside Afghanistan and wage war for years against the Pakistani state in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with their strict brand of Islamic governance system. On Friday, a suicide attack near the border killed seven Pakistani soldiers and wounded 13, security officials said. “The Afghan regime must rein in the proxies who have sanctuaries in Afghanistan and are using Afghan soil to perpetrate heinous attacks inside Pakistan,” Pakistani Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said on Saturday, addressing a graduation ceremony of cadets. Adblock test (Why?)
Indians returning for Diwali stranded in Italy, Air India cancels Milan-Delhi flight due to…, airline says, ‘safety of all…’
After Air India cancels flights returning to India from Italy, hundreds of passengers were left stranded just before Diwali. The airline issued a statement that the flight AI138 from Italy to India, was cancelled due to…
Bihar elections 2025: Congress announces second list of 5 candidates; check here
The Congress on Saturday released its second list for the Bihar assembly elections, announcing candidates for Narkatiaganj, Kishanganj, Kasba, Purnia and Gaya Town assembly seats.