Jawad Iqbal

Pakistan, the world’s only Muslim nuclear power, has traditionally been an international sideshow. No longer. The country has reportedly been passing messages between Washington and Tehran in efforts to bring an end to the Iran war. It is has a five-point plan aimed at restoring “peace and stability” across the region. How have the Pakistanis pulled off this remarkable diplomatic makeover? The answer starts with some critical decisions the Pakistanis took last year. After the four-day armed conflict between Pakistan and India in May 2025, both sides claimed “victory”. But crucially Islamabad publicly acknowledged Washington’s role in achieving a ceasefire (something India refused to do). Pakistan later nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Talking nonsense about football is a lucrative and growing business, hence the explosion in podcasts in which former players exchange inanities about the game. A surprising new entrant to this festival of footballing gibberish – a right winger fresh from the subs’ bench, so to speak – is Suella Braverman. The former Conservative home secretary, who joined Reform UK in January, has called on the Football Association to scrap its ‘woke’ diversity and inclusion policies. She wrote to the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, this week claiming its strategy was ‘fundamentally flawed, inherently racist and bad for the game’ because ‘the best coaches should get the job, not because of their skin colour, but because they are the best person for the job.

Sir Keir Starmer wants everyone to know how sorry, really sorry, he is for giving Lord Mandelson the job of Ambassador to the United States. On a visit to Belfast yesterday, the Prime Minister issued his latest and perhaps most abject mea culpa so far. It came just hours after the publication of embarrassing government documents detailing the process (or more accurately, the lack of one) that existed when it came to appointing the now disgraced peer to the plum diplomatic role in Washington. Sir Keir told reporters:   The release of the information shows what was known. That led to further questions being asked…But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein, and I do that.

More than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal. These are the first findings from the public inquiry into what has been called the worst miscarriage of justice in UK history. Sir Wyn Williams, chairman of the inquiry, said that a further 59 victims had contemplated suicide, and ten had attempted it. His 162-page report follows evidence from 298 witnesses over three years and the examination of 2.2 million pages of documents. He does not hold back in his criticism.

India’s Hindu nationalist rulers are waging war on the English language. They like to claim it is the language of colonial subjugation. Amit Shah, the home minister and a powerful ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has predicted that the day is coming when Indians who speak English will feel 'ashamed' to do so. In his eyes, the English language is a legacy of colonial rule and should be stamped out. It is hard to think of anything more stupid and counterproductive than this shameless campaign. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party, was withering in his condemnation: ‘English is not shameful; it is empowering. English is not a chain; it is a tool to break the chains.’ Hear, hear to that!

Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, has two jobs. The first is to lead the 32-member alliance at a time of unprecedented threat and challenges. His other equally significant task is to keep America, and in particular President Donald Trump, on side. Rutte’s ability to sweet talk Trump is one of the reasons why he got the job of Nato chief Rutte is in effect tasked with doing and saying whatever it takes to keep Trump sweet. Why so? For the simple and obvious reason that, without the US leader’s support, Nato is in even bigger trouble than ever. That is why the criticism of Rutte in some quarters for lavishing praise on Trump is misguided.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) are champions of Europe for the first time in their history. They demolished Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League Final in Munich. Football clubs have become the playthings of autocratic nation states with bottomless pockets Forget the Premier League and the sporting abomination that is the revamped Fifa Club World Cup. The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football -the competition that every top team wants to win.The final was billed as a mouth-watering clash of opposites: youth and free-flowing football (PSG) versus experience and the nous to always find a way to win (Inter). But the final was a huge anticlimax: PSG dominated the match from start to finish.

This time last year Britain’s top cyber spy warned that China represents an ‘epoch-defining challenge’. Anne Keast-Butler, the director of GCHQ, accused China of defying international norms and said that the country was the agency’s ‘top priority’. Beijing has been blamed for a string of cyber attacks on British institutions, including hacking the Ministry of Defence’s payroll system and stealing data about UK voters from the Electoral Commission. In recent months the intelligence services have alleged that Chinese spies have penetrated the inner circle of the Duke of York, infiltrated Westminster circles, and targeted Hong Kong dissidents in the UK. This is alleged spying and disruption on a grand scale by China.

Should football fans be allowed to have a pint in the stands during a game? Luke Charters, the Labour MP for York Outer, certainly thinks so, and is calling for trials to see what impact lifting the ban on booze in the stands might have. ‘The days of hooliganism are gone’, he said. ‘Fans of other sports can drink in the stands but football fans cannot.’ The booze ban, in its present incarnation encourages fans to drink more ahead of the match The Labour backbencher raised the issue in the House of Commons during a debate on the Football Governance Bill, proposing designated drinking zones in view of the pitch as a potential way forward.

India and Pakistan – two nuclear armed states – have a history of fighting wars. Tensions have been growing between the two nations after last month’s deadly terror attack in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, with the drum beat of a deadly military confrontation growing louder by the day.  On Tuesday night, India an attack on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The Indian government said its forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in locations ‘from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed’. India said its actions ‘have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature’.