Infinity Social Updates

The feud between the PPP and the PML-N took another turn on Tuesday as the former staged a walkout of the National Assembly over remarks made by the latter’s leader and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz a day earlier. The war of words, which began over flood compensation through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), had expanded to water rights on the Indus River a day earlier as the Punjab’s chief minister told the PPP leadership to keep its advice to itself. At an event inaugurating an electric bus service in Faisalabad on Monday, Maryam dismissed Sindh-based objections to a contentious canal project on the Indus River, insisting Punjab was entitled to develop waterways for its people. “If Punjab wants to construct canals for its water, why are you bothered?” CM Maryam said. “It is Punjab’s water.” “I wouldn’t have stolen water. I would have used it to create waterways and develop Cholistan,” she added. Her remarks were a direct response to fierce opposition from the PPP...

US President Donald Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday unveiled a 20-point plan for Gaza, seeking to broker a ceasefire, a hostage exchange, demilitarisation, and a transitional governance structure. The two leaders have warned that Israel would “finish the job” against Hamas if the Palestinian group rejects the deal. Key Muslim nations have thrown their weight behind the plan while Washington’s European allies have urged Hamas to accept it. For its part, Pakistan, which was personally thanked by Trump while announcing the deal, has hailed the 20-point plan; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed it and called for implementation of the two-state solution. “I am also convinced that durable peace between the Palestinian people and Israel would be essential in bringing political stability and economic growth to the region,“ he said in a post on X on Sunday night. The prime minister’s remarks, however, have sparked strong reactions at home...

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) achieved another milestone on Tuesday, crossing 166,000 points for the first time in history. The hundred index surged to an intraday peak of 166,556.29, marking a gain of 2,708.61 points or 1.65 per cent, while its lowest level of the day was 164,208.33, still up by 360.65 points or 0.22pc. The continued upward trend in the stock exchange reflected the increasing confidence of the trade and business community in the economic policies of the government. “Strong corporate results and additional liquidity in the market, with a preference for equities, are pushing the market higher,” Samiullah Tariq, head of research and development at Pak Kuwait Investment Company Ltd, told Dawn.com . This was the third consecutive record-setting streak, with the benchmark KSE 100 index soaring to an all-time high of 163,847 points, up 1,590 points or 0.98pc on Monday. The rally, which pushed the index closer to the 164,000 mark, was largely driven by aggressiv...

Sialkot police registered a first information report (FIR) on Monday against multiple suspects for allegedly vandalising the properties of and attacking the members of the Ahmadi community the previous night. The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com , was registered at Moutra police station on behalf of Sub-Inspector Amir Ali Sindhu. It invokes Sections 395 (punishment for dacoity), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy a house), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 324 (attempt to commit murder), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of a common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terr...

Social media platform X said on Monday it plans to appeal an Indian court order that would allow over two million police officers nationwide to issue arbitrary takedown requests via a secretive online portal called the Sahyog. “We will appeal this order to defend free expression,” X said in a post on the platform, in its first statement since the High Court of Karnataka ruled last week that there was no legal merit to the company’s legal challenge to quash India’s content removal mechanisms. “The Sahyog enables officers to order content removal based solely on allegations of “illegality,” without judicial review or due process for the speakers, and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance,” X said on Monday. X has locked horns with New Delhi in the past, equating the government’s mechanisms with censorship. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the new system tackles a proliferation of unlawful content and ensures accountability online. ...

China’s former minister for agriculture and rural affairs was sentenced to death with reprieve for bribery at a court in Jilin province on Sunday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua . Tang took bribes, including cash and property worth over 268 million yuan ($37.6 million) in various positions held from 2007 to 2024, Xinhua said. The Changchun Intermediate People’s Court suspended his death sentence for two years, noting he had confessed to his crimes, it added. China’s Communist Party expelled Tang in November 2024, six months after he was placed under investigation by the anti-graft watchdog and removed from his post. Tang’s investigation was unusually swift and followed similar investigations into Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe. President Xi Jinping started a campaign of purges of China’s domestic security apparatus in 2020, seeking to ensure police, prosecutors, and judges are “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable”. Tan...

A team of female health workers was attacked on Saturday while administering vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin district, the second such incident in three days. The HPV vaccine, first launched in Pakistan in 2022, has now been rolled out nationwide as part of the routine immunisation programme to protect adolescent girls against cervical cancer. However, vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan remains a major public health challenge, driven by a mix of misinformation, safety concerns, and mistrust of authorities. In the latest incident yesterday, the HPV vaccination team was performing its duty in a non-formal education school in the village of Ratuwal, within the limits of Kathian Sheikhan police station, when a 55-year-old resident of the village entered the school and attempted to attack a female health supervisor. According to Kathian Sheikhan’s Station House Officer Sabir Iqbal Sindhu, the suspect “tried to attack the supervisor with a stick an...

As some Western leaders recognise a Palestinian state, Israel seems to have entered panic mode. Tel Aviv has done again what it does best: attacking unarmed civilians. Late on Tuesday night, the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) — a collection of boats carrying humanitarian aid with rights activists, doctors, parliamentarians, journalists and others — was hit by Israeli drones as they entered the final stretch of their journey to Gaza. The aid boats are carrying delegations from over 40 countries, including Pakistan, which aim to distribute vital humanitarian aid such as baby formula, food, water and medicine to the malnourished, forcibly displaced and injured civilians suffering from almost two years of genocide , as classified by the United Nations. A group of ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza are shown moored at the small island of Koufonisi, near the south of the island of Crete, Greece on September 26. — AFP According to a statement issued by the GSF, at least 14 boat...

Traders in Gilgit-Baltistan ended their over two-month-long sit-in at the Sost Dry Port on Saturday, paving the way for the resumption of trade and tourism via the Pakistan-China border at the location. The protest was launched in July against the government’s taxation policies and suspension of customs clearance at the port. Trade leader Javed Hussain, who led the protest, told Dawn.com , that the announcement about traders ending the protest ending was made by the supreme council — a body that had represented the them in talks with the federal and GB government. Following the negotiations, Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari had announced on Wednesday that the government had agreed to tax exemptions on imports coming through the Sost Dry Port — provided that the goods were for local consumption and meet strict eligibility conditions. The total annual value of tax exemptions was capped at Rs4 billion. However, expressing dissatisfaction over the negotiations’ result...

Unidentified drones were observed during the night over Denmark’s biggest military base, police said on Saturday, the latest in a slew of sightings that Danish officials have called a “hybrid attack”. The mystery drone observations have prompted the closure of several airports across the Scandinavian country since Monday, when the first drones appeared. “I can confirm that we had an incident around 8:15pm (11:15pm PKT) that lasted for some hours. One to two drones were observed outside and over the airbase,” duty officer Simon Skelsjaer told AFP , referring to the Karup military base. He said police could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.” Police were cooperating with the military in their investigation, he said. The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed though no flights were affected as no commercial flights were scheduled at that hour, Skelsjaer said. Danish Prime Minister Met...

Big smiles, a red carpet and a thumbs up: the first formal bilateral interaction between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and US President Donald Trump during the early hours of Friday morning was plastered all over the airwaves. The meeting, which was also attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, was described by the Prime Minister’s Office as being held in a pleasant atmosphere. However, the meeting itself was closed to the press — a break from President Trump’s usual modus operendi — as he is quite fond of Oval Office photo-ops and there was no press conference either; just a statement issued from Pakistan where the US president was described as a “man of peace” and stressing the need to enhance cooperation in security and intelligence. With Pak-US ties ‘gradually warming’ in President Trump’s second term, the meeting was closely watched by geopolitical hawks and analysts. Here’s what some had to say about it: ‘Quite surprising’ Author and journalist Zahid...

A man in Karachi’s Malir area has died of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), raising the city’s death toll from the virus to five this year, the Sindh health department said in a statement on Friday. According to the World Health Organisation , the CCHF, commonly known as Congo Virus, causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks with a case fatality rate of 10-40 per cent. There is no vaccine available for the disease. Experts say the CCHF virus is primarily transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during and immediately after slaughter. As per the statement, a lab report confirmed that a 28-year-old butcher from Karachi’s Landhi area had contracted the disease. He developed symptoms on September 24, was admitted to the hospital the same day, and died within hours of admission. His symptoms included a high-grade fever, cough, shortness of breath, and bleeding from the mouth and rectum, following which a polymerase c...

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday announced plans for a new nationwide digital ID in a bid to curb illegal migration, but the move faces strong opposition in country that has long-resisted such moves. The new digital ID will be held on people’s phones and there will be no requirement for individuals to carry or be asked to produce it, said the government. However, it will be “mandatory as a means of proving your right to work,” a statement said. “This will stop those with no right to be here from being able to find work, curbing their prospect of earning money, one of the key ‘pull factors’ for people who come to the UK illegally,” it added. The government said the drive will also make it simpler to apply for services like driving licences, childcare and welfare, while streamlining access to tax records. The announcement comes as Labour, the party in government, prepares to hold its annual conference, with Starmer under intense pressure, particularly over immigration. “...

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Thursday that terrorists had “state patronage” in Afghanistan, from where they “attack us”. Terrorists were provided “safe havens” and places to run training camps in Afghanistan, he said while responding to a question during a press conference in Islamabad. He highlighted that many among the recently killed terrorists were from Afghanistan. The CM then called on the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan to abide by the Doha agreement, in which “you committed not to let your soil be used against any country”. More to follow from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/S64B2sg

Meta is expanding ‘teen accounts’ to Facebook and Messenger in Pakistan starting this week, placing both new and existing teen users into “safer, more protected experiences,” the organisation said on Thursday. “Teen accounts are already rolled out globally on Instagram, and now Meta is extending the same protections to teens worldwide on Facebook and Messenger,” Meta said in a statement. Teen accounts were introduced by Meta a year ago, which, according to the statement, was “a significant step to keep teens safe across Meta’s apps”. “Since then, hundreds of millions of teens have already been placed into Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.” The statement added: “Teen Account protections were designed to address parents’ top concerns with automatic safeguards that limit who teens can interact with, filter the content they see, and ensure their time online is well spent.” While there’s always more work to be done, Meta says it is “encouraged to see that Teen Ac...

Indian police patrolled the northern city of Leh on Thursday, a day after protests demanding greater autonomy for India-held Ladakh turned deadly when security forces opened fire. At least five people were killed, 30 police officers were injured and several more protesters wounded. The city — usually bustling with tourists — appeared deserted, with most main roads blocked by coils of razor wire and guarded by police in riot gear, an AFP reporter said. Protests erupted on Wednesday, with crowds demanding greater autonomy in the sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region that is home to some 300,000 people and which borders China and Pakistan. India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said that an “unruly mob” had attacked police, reporting in a statement issued late on Wednesday that “more than 30” officers were injured. Protesters torched a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while officers fired tear gas a...

Tech companies, including WhatsApp and Reddit, as well as streaming giant Twitch and gaming firm Roblox, could be among more than a dozen sites added to Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, the country’s regulator said Wednesday. Platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube were already included in the ban — a world-first. But the head of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has written to 16 more companies to “self-assess” whether they fall under the ban’s remit. The list also included Pinterest as well as Lego Play, streaming company Kick and gaming platform Steam. Companies will need to make a case if they believe their platform should be exempt from the ban, the national broadcaster ABC said. Inman Grant told the network that while some cases were “pretty clear”, the regulator would “give them the due diligence process”. “We need to hear them all out,” she said. The regulator said it will initially focus on platforms with the greatest numb...

French police arrested 101 Roma fans, some with weapons, in Nice on Tuesday, a day before the teams were due to meet in the Europa League, the local prefecture announced. A separate source told AFP that the Italian supporters were carrying sticks, shovels and knuckle dusters around the city centre on the French Riviera. The prefecture said that more than 400 police officers will be present for Wednesday’s group stage match. “Since yesterday, more than 200 personnel, including two mobile units, were deployed in the city centre of Nice to prevent all types of public disorder and proceeded with the arrest of 102 individuals identified as Roma ultras, carrying weapons,” it said on Wednesday, before later revising the number of arrests down to 101. “These individuals were taken into police custody,” it added. The local authorities have banned Roma fans from displaying visible signs of their allegiance in the city between 1300 GMT (6pm PKT) Tuesday and 1000 GMT (3pm PKT) on Thursday. ...

China’s top internet regulator said Tuesday it would take action against ByteDance-owned news app Jinri Toutiao and Alibaba’s internet browser company UCWeb for allegedly displaying harmful content, a day after announcing a two-month social media crackdown. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) vowed on Monday to combat content containing “malicious incitement of conflict” and “negative outlooks on life such as world-weariness”. Beijing requires social media companies to moderate content on their platforms, with posts strictly controlled to avoid anything deemed to be too subversive, vulgar, pornographic or generally harmful. The CAC had already announced penalties this month against three popular digital platforms — micro-blogging platform Weibo, short video app Kuaishou and Instagram-like Xiaohongshu — for allegedly neglecting content management duties. Authorities have not specified what punitive actions are being taken against those platforms. The CAC said Tuesday that...

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday granted rights activist Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha transit bail, three days after the couple was booked following a clash with the president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA). The police had registered a case against Mazari, her spouse, Zainab Janjua and several PTI-linked lawyers, including Naeem Panjhuta and Fateullah Barkiunder, under anti-terror laws after the IHCBA alleged that the bar leadership was “assaulted” by the lawyers, the suspects had also raised slogans against state institutions. Mazari and the other booked lawyers had staged a protest on the premises of the IHC to oppose the suspension of Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri from judicial work. The hearing was presided over by PHC judge Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah, who granted a protective bail to the couple and asked them to appear before a relevant court by October 9. Mazari and her spouse appeared in the cour...

Azan “has seen everything. He knows his parents are gone. He just doesn’t yet understand how to live without them.” Shams ur Rehman is talking about his nine-year-old nephew Muhammad Azan, who has been staying with him and his family in Buner, a district in north-western Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Azan’s parents, as well as his three brothers, were killed when flash floods tore through the valley in the middle of August. Also in Buner, 17-year-old Qadir Ahmed has to carry another burden. On 15 August, his family house collapsed in the floods. “The water carried away my mother… now, I must look after my [four] younger brothers and sisters.” Not long ago, Ahmed passed his matriculation exams and aspired to go to college. Now, suddenly, he has to step in as the head of the family. “My education has stopped,” he says. “It is very difficult to take care of my siblings after losing our home and our mother.” Pakistan has been experiencing unprecedented floods and landslides....

Pakistan will bowl first on Monday after losing the toss in their third and final one-day international (ODI) against South Africa in the lead-up to the Women’s World Cup . Proteas skipper Laura Wolvaardt won the toss at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore and chose to bat first. In the second ODI, the Women in Green were all set to chase South Africa’s daunting 313-run total, but fell 25 runs short. A spectacular knock by Sidra Amin , who brought up her second consecutive century of the series, brought them close, but in the end, the Duckworth-Lewis method adjusted 313-run target was a step too far. Setting a mammoth score to chase after the Proteas batters ruled the roost in the first innings, Sidra stepped up again under the Gaddafi Stadium lights to score a sublime hundred — but failed to close the chase. The Proteas had sailed to an easy victory over Pakistan after chasing down a target of 256 to win by eight wickets in the first ODI of their series in Lahore on Tuesday. The OD...

The bodies of three transgender individuals were recovered from Karachi’s Memon Goth on Sunday, police and rescue officials said. The bodies were discovered shortly after midnight on Sunday in the Memon Goth area of Karachi, according to Edhi Information Centre. “The bodies were found riddled with bullet holes,” the Edhi Centre said in its statement, adding that the deceased were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medicolegal formalities. Police also confirmed the incident, with city police official Javed Ahmed Abro telling AFP , “We are still in the process of confirming their identities. It is too early to determine the motive behind the killings.” Malir’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada arrived on the scene and issued strict instructions to the concerned deputy superintendent of police and station house officer, issuing immediate orders to arrest the criminals, according to a spokesperson for the Malir District Police. “On the inst...