  We analyse the B -> pi pi, pi K modes in the light of the most recent
B-factory data, and obtain the following new results: (i) the B0 -> pi+ pi-,
pi- K+ modes prefer gamma=(74+-6)deg, which - together with |V_ub/V_cb| -
allows us to determine the ``true'' unitarity triangle and to search for
CP-violating new-physics contributions to B0_d-\bar B0_d mixing; (ii) the B ->
pi K puzzle reflected in particular by the low experimental value of the ratio
R_n of the neutral B -> pi K rates persists and still favours new physics in
the electroweak penguin sector with a new CP-violating phase phi ~ -90deg,
although now also phi ~ +90deg can bring us rather close to the data; (iii) the
mixing-induced B0 -> pi0 K_S CP asymmetry is a sensitive probe of the sign of
this phase, and would currently favour phi ~ +90deg, as well as the direct CP
asymmetry of B+- -> pi0 K+-, which suffers, however, from large hadronic
uncertainties; (iv) we investigate the sensitivity of our B -> pi K analysis to
large non-factorizable SU(3)-breaking effects and find that their impact is
surprisingly small so that it is indeed exciting to speculate on new physics;
(v) assuming that new physics enters through Z0 penguins, we study the
interplay between B -> pi K and rare B, K decays and point out that the most
recent B-factory constraints for the latter have interesting implications,
bringing us to a few scenarios for the future evolution of the data, where also
the mixing-induced CP violation in B0 -> pi0 K_S plays a prominent role.
