Elian Peltier
International correspondent with The New York Times covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- I’m honored to be The New York Times’s next bureau chief for Pakistan & Afghanistan. Working in these countries over the past few months has been an immense privilege and I can’t wait to tell more of their stories alongside my talented colleagues here. www.nytco.com/press/new-bu...
- NEW: Secret negotiations between the Trump administration and Taliban authorities for the release of US prisoners and the last Afghan in Guantánamo have stalled. The sticking point: the fate of two high-profile detainees. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/w...
- “A senior Iranian health ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said about 3,000 people had been killed across the country.” — ‘Shoot to Kill’: Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge From Iran www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
- The demolition of the Ariana cinema in Kabul to make way for a shopping mall highlights how the Taliban are prioritizing land sales and revenue over the city's history. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/w...
- “As Israeli settlers build more encampments across the valleys of the West Bank, the hiking trails that Mr. Aruri has walked since childhood are, one by one, being turned into dead ends.” As Israeli Settlements Get Bigger, Palestinian Hikes Grow Shorter www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/w...
- Nearly 17.5 million Afghans are facing acute food insecurity this winter, according to the World Food Program—roughly 40 percent of the population, and a 2.5 million increase from last year. www.wfp.org/news/latest-...
- Afghanistan’s GDP is projected to grow by 4.3 percent in 2025, up from 2.5 percent in 2024, according to the World Bank. But… GDP per capita is expected to decline by 4 percent because of rapid population expansion estimated at 8.6 percent. www.worldbank.org/en/news/pres...
- Pakistan and Afghanistan have stopped all forms of legal trade with each other. Caught in the middle are millions of business owners and members of close-knit communities living on each side of the border. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...
- I was at the Spin Boldak border crossing a few hours before Afghanistan and Pakistan accused each other of opening fire there. The damaged “Friendship Gate” remained inaccessible. Only Afghans returning from Afghanistan, on wheelbarrows and in trucks, were allowed to cross.
- The suspect in the DC attack had joined a CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary unit during the U.S. war in Afghanistan to earn money for his family and get medical training, not for ideological reasons, a friend of his told @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
- Pakistan is no longer the refuge that generations of Afghans once found. One million of them have been expelled or forcibly returned this year. Expulsions are not new, but the indiscriminate nature of the current drive is. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/w...
- “The State Department instructed its diplomats to stop processing all visas for Afghan passport holders. If visas have been approved and printed but not handed to the applicant, diplomats should destroy the printed visas.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/u...
- R. Lakanwal, the Afghan suspect behind the DC shooting, served in the CIA-backed Zero Unit in Kandahar. He suffered from mental health issues even before the Taliban takeover and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/u...
- It’s hard to fathom the scenes of devastation in northern Pakistan, and yet they’re becoming the norm.
- More than 3,000 Afghan women applied for asylum in July in Germany — twice as much as in June. www.infomigrants.net/en/post/6627...
- Last week I went to the border between Iran and Afghanistan to report on the mass expulsions and forced returns of nearly 1.5 million Afghans living in Iran this year. The story is on today's front page of the New York Times.
- I’m coming back from the Iran-Afghanistan border where 20,000+ Afghans return everyday amid a wave of mass expulsions from Iran. 435,000 have returned since July 1, per UNHCR. 800,000 since June 1 and 1.4 million this year. When was the last time we’ve seen such figures?
- What it’s like to work as a moto taxi driver in one of the world’s five least livable cities, Karachi, when it’s 40 degrees. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/w...
- 🇦🇫🇵🇰 Some news! Over the next several months I will be reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Times. First story from Kabul this week: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/w...
- On M23's challenges in governing Goma: "Seizing is easy, ruling is harder." continent.substack.com/p/seizing-is...
- R. Kelly, meet pro Ibrahim Traoré propaganda 🇧🇫 youtu.be/aFrOKH0Rqvo?...
- African Catholics on Francis: “Being from Latin America, he felt for our predicaments as a third-world continent struggling in a world controlled from far away” said Cardinal Onaiyekan, the fmr archbishop of Abuja who voted in the conclave that elected Francis. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/w...
- What migration looks like in Africa — via @nytopinion www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- 🎸🇲🇱 A tribute to Amadou Bagayoko of Amadou & Mariam, featuring his childhood friend, mentor, and son. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/w...
- UNICEF on the conflict in eastern Congo 🇨🇩: children make up between 35 to 45 percent of the nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence reported in January and February of this year. (AFP)
- Finally had a chance to read @johnalechner.bsky.social’s fascinating book on Wagner. I highly recommend it. John explains with jaw-dropping details and fine analysis what Prigozhin represented for Russia’s state apparatus and vice versa. About Wagner’s in Africa… 🔽 www.bloomsbury.com/us/death-is-...
