Good afternoon,

Today’s news: Globally, a new Russia-Ukraine peace plan. Plus, updates from Palestine and India. Locally, IMF report flags systemic corruption in Pakistan, a 28th amendment, and PM reviews PIA privatisation plan.

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Around The World

Peace in our time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s ready to work with Washington on its proposed path to ending the Russia-Ukraine war, pushing back on suggestions that Kyiv was sidelined in a draft peace plan floated after US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. The draft Witkoff-Dmitriev plan emerged as Russia claimed small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine, and Zelensky faced a domestic crisis implicating top officials in a $100 million corruption scandal.

Under the plan, which covers 28 points, Kyiv would be required to concede weapons and territory. Overall, it would give Russia full control over both Crimea in the south, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 but which remains in dispute, and the Donbas region, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Here are the detailed points of the plan.

Updates from Palestine. Israel plans to seize parts of a major West Bank historic site, and settlers put up a new outpost overnight, as the country faces pressure to crack down on settler violence in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Civil Administration announced its intention to expropriate large swaths of Sebastia, a major archaeological site in the West Bank. Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said the site is around 1,800 dunams (450 acres), Israel’s largest seizure of archaeologically important land.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcibly removing tens of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps in the occupied West Bank earlier this year. A report indicates that Israeli forces expelled 32,000 Palestinians in January and February, and they have not been allowed to return. Additionally, A day earlier, Gaza’s Government Media Office said that Israeli forces and tanks had advanced about 300 metres (984 feet) beyond the so-called “yellow line” in eastern Gaza City.

Oil-free. Reliance Industries, India’s largest importer of Russian crude, has halted Russian oil purchases to comply with upcoming EU restrictions on fuels refined from Russian crude and new US sanctions. The White House welcomed the move, which comes after Washington imposed steep tariffs on Indian goods, partly over Delhi’s reliance on Russian oil, which had surged to nearly 36% of India’s imports since 2022. Mounting global pressure has pushed Indian refiners, including state-run companies, to sharply scale back Russian purchases, with Reliance increasing imports from Saudi Arabia and Iraq instead. 

Pakistan

System error. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a damning report highlighting systemic corruption and elite capture as major obstacles to Pakistan's economic growth. While Rs. 5.31 trillion was recovered from corruption between January 2023 and December 2024, this represents only a fraction of the economic cost. The report identifies entrenched interests in sectors such as sugar, real estate, agriculture, and energy, which benefit from favourable policies, subsidies, and tax exemptions, undermining revenues, widening inequality, and limiting growth.  

The IMF warns that weak governance in budgeting, procurement, and state-owned enterprises is eroding public trust and hurting economic performance. It calls for structural reforms, including fiscal tightening, simpler taxes, transparent procurement, stronger judicial accountability, and better SOE management. The Fund estimates that successful reforms could raise Pakistan’s GDP by 5–6.5% over five years. But without decisive action, entrenched vested interests will keep blocking stabilisation and fair growth.

Stable-ish. The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) has urged Parliament to embed core economic reforms into the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment, arguing that chronic policy instability, high taxes, and currency volatility cannot be resolved without constitutional guarantees that restore investor confidence. As debate intensifies over potential changes to Article 160 (3A), which protects provincial shares in the NFC Award, the PBF proposed anchoring reforms such as stabilising the currency, rationalising taxes, and ensuring predictable, business-friendly policies.

Walk the runway. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was briefed on the fast-approaching privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), with 75% of the airline’s shares set to be sold to private buyers as the process enters its decisive bidding phase, involving four pre-qualified parties. Officials assured that PIA’s name and branding will remain unchanged and presented a business plan to expand the fleet from 18 to 38 aircraft and increase the route network from 30 to over 40 cities by 2029.

What Else Is Happening?

🇧🇩A powerful earthquake has struck Bangladesh outside the capital, Dhaka, killing at least three people. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 04:38 GMT near the city of Narsingdi, about 33km from Dhaka.

🖼️A self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become the most valuable work by a female artist sold at auction after selling for $54.7 million. The work, titled El sueño (la cama), which translates to "The Dream (The Bed)," depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed beneath a skeleton entwined with dynamite.