The Taliban’s envoy in Riyadh has held talks with Saudi officials responsible for residency and migration issues, including discussions on Afghan prisoners and efforts to address their problems.
The Taliban’s morality police in Khost have closed 12 recording studios, saying they performed religious chants and songs and were shut to ensure compliance with Sharia principles.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has called for stronger joint action against terrorism and drug trafficking during a meeting with delegation heads from Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states.
Sources in Kabul say Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has restricted cabinet meetings chaired by Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund, requiring his approval before they can be held.
A senior National Resistance Front official claims the Taliban has set up about 700 security posts and deployed nearly 30,000 forces in Panjshir, which he says the group views as its biggest strategic threat.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran and Moscow share views on easing tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan and countering terrorist threats.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has criticised US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for downplaying NATO allies’ role in Afghanistan, urging him to repeat his remarks to families of 44 Poles who died there.
Iran’s Mobarakeh Steel Company has reached a broad agreement with the Taliban on cooperation in Afghanistan’s mining sector, according to Iran’s specialist industry and mining outlet Irasin.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries met in Samarkand on Monday for a C5+1 meeting focused on security, trade, energy and regional cooperation.
Sources say the Taliban has opened a second drone operations centre near the governor’s office in Badakhshan amid rising insecurity and repeated attacks on Taliban facilities in the province.
Afghan traders and investors have called for greater Indonesian investment in mining, agriculture, electricity, energy and industry during meetings with Indonesian business and government representatives.
Uzbek officials and UNICEF representatives have discussed supplying medicines to Afghanistan as shortages and rising prices persist after trade routes with Pakistan were closed and Pakistani drug imports were banned.
Iran’s transport minister has called for extending the railway from Herat to Uzbekistan’s Termez border, saying the route could boost trade and give regional countries greater access to open seas.
New figures in Pakistan show bilateral trade with Afghanistan fell by more than 74 percent in the latest financial year, dropping from $1.3 billion to around $358 million.
Spain’s prime minister says the energy crisis caused by the US-Iran conflict has cost the EU more than €100 billion, warning of major consequences for public finances and household budgets.
Local sources in Paktia say heavy clashes have erupted between Taliban fighters and Pakistani forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, opposite Pakistan’s Kurram district.
Twenty-eight civil society organisations have called on the United Nations and the international community to intervene to prevent the forced eviction of residents of Omid Sabz Township in western Kabul.
Twenty police officers have been abducted by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, while armed men separately destroyed an empty police post in Qila Abdullah district.
Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov says trade between Russia and Afghanistan doubled in the first half of 2026 as Moscow and Kabul develop what he called “constructive and mutually beneficial” ties.
Russia’s Afghanistan envoy Zamir Kabulov says a senior economic delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk will soon visit Afghanistan for talks with Taliban officials.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, has blamed Pakistan’s policies for regional insecurity, accusing the state of recruiting, training and supporting militants during the Soviet-Afghan war.