Pakistan has launched two new overland trade corridors through Iran and China, offering Central Asian countries alternative routes to Pakistani ports after Islamabad closed its main transit crossings with Afghanistan because of security concerns. The new corridors provide Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, with overland access to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan while bypassing Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has already begun using the Gabd-Rimdan route to

A delegation from the Afghan Taliban met with European Union staff in Brussels for closed-door talks that focused on diplomatic services and “dignified returns” of Afghans to the isolated and war-ravaged nation, said a Taliban official. “This was a historic visit as first time ever that delegation from Islamic Emirate visited the E.U. and held talks with member states in Brussels,” said Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson for the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs who led the

[A] Taliban leader banned fiber optic internet in an Afghan province to “prevent immorality,” a spokesman for the administration said....