Infinity Social Updates

The United States and Israel launched a wave of strikes against targets in Iran on Saturday, triggering explosions in the capital Tehran and an escalation across the region. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally — again — obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy,” said US President Donald Trump in an address from his Florida home posted to his Truth Social platform. On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”, and urged Iranians to overthrow the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership. In response to the Israel-US aggression, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran later in the day confirmed the launch of the “first wave” of missile and drone attacks against Israel in response to the strikes on its territory. Political figures and analysts in Pakistan have condemned the recent developmen...

Countries in the Middle East and around the world were watching with bated breath after the United States and Israel carried out long-feared strikes on Iran on Saturday. Trump: ‘annihilate’ US President Donald Trump vowed that the strikes would cripple Iran’s military and urged Iranians to rise up against the Islamic republic. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally — again — obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy,” Trump said in the address from his Florida home posted to his Truth Social platform. Calling on Iranians to stand up to their government, Trump added: “The hour of your freedom is at hand.” But he also warned that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties”. Netanyahu ‘cast off the yoke’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”, and urged Iranians to ove...

Multiple Indian and Afghan users on social media platform X shared visuals on February 27, claiming that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet amid the current conflict between the two countries. However, the visuals are doctored. The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false. To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan analysed the visuals for discrepancies, verified aircraft serial records and ran the content through multiple AI-detection tools. Multiple Indian and Afghan users on social media platform X shared visuals on February 27, claiming that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet amid the current conflict between the two countries. However, the visuals are doctored. Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on February 26. Authorities in Kabul had called it a response to Paki...

When states escalate, they are usually clear about their capacity and objectives. The Afghan Taliban, however, appeared to abandon that principle at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last night, triggering an intense military confrontation — including airstrikes and artillery exchanges — across the Durand Line as well as deep into Afghan territory. The immediate backdrop of these tensions is not new. Islamabad has for years maintained that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani terrorist group affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, operated from Afghan soil because of the official patronage it enjoys there. Only hours before the latest crisis erupted, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi plainly stated that Pakistan’s quarrel was not with the Afghan people but with terrorist safe havens that threaten Pakistani lives. That was the political setting; it emphasised the need for patient engagement and discreet signalling. The Afghan Taliban, however, chose to announce...

THE chaos at the country’s major airports seems to be subsiding, with some order gradually restored after the state’s ham-handed efforts to crack down on unlawful travel. The past few months had been a nightmare, with passengers travelling abroad from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad routinely complaining of long queues, repeated questioning by security personnel, and extremely long waits for immigration clearance. It seems that some unscrupulous elements had also jumped at the opportunity to fleece time-stressed travellers by furtively offering ‘facilitation services’ in exchange for extortive ‘fees’. Some passengers had even complained on social media that the free-to-use luggage trolleys meant to facilitate travellers had ‘disappeared’ from their usual drop-off spots, and they were forced to pay to use one. Then there were the reports of passengers being denied boarding on flimsy pretexts, or for no reason at all. It seems that the growing discontent finally forced the authorities to r...

New Zealand’s “street-smart” cricketers can find a way to beat England and guarantee their semi-final place at the T20 World Cup, coach Rob Walters said on Thursday. A win for New Zealand in Friday’s Super Eights clash in Colombo will see them top Group 2 and join the already-qualified England in the final four. A defeat would leave the door ajar for Pakistan to beat eliminated Sri Lanka on Saturday with the second semi-final berth then being decided on net run rate. Mitchell Santner’s New Zealand were in trouble at 84-6 against Sri Lanka on Wednesday before the captain steered them to 168-7 and a thumping 61-run win which knocked out the co-hosts. “I think if you look historically at the Black Caps, you would probably say that they’re a team that have been great problem solvers,” Walters told reporters. “They are street smart; they find a way to understand the conditions quickly. “It’s certainly something that we pride ourselves on. We can adapt to conditions quickly and fi...

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday fixed for hearing the petitions seeking suspension of former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi’s sentences in the £190 million corruption case . During the hearing today, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Azam Khan expressed displeasure as dozens of lawyers affiliated with PTI stood up and approached the rostrum simultaneously. “What is this? Are you trying to influence the court?” the IHC chief justice asked. Imran’s counsel, Barrister Salman Sardar, replied: “Not at all.” He argued that the matter had assumed greater urgency in view of the former premier’s sudden ailment and eye infection. He further submitted that Bushra Bibi, despite being a woman, was serving a seven-year sentence and that her petition for suspension of sentence had been fixed after six months. “We request you to suspend the sentence. The last order was passed on November 9,” ...

Anyone in need of a good cleansing cry in the last week has only had to peek at TikTok, Reddit or X. Punch the Japanese macaque’s virality has turned the internet into one big grief support group. Abandoned by his mother at birth and hand-raised by keepers, the young primate is one of about 60 at Ichikawa City Zoo’s Monkey Mountain exhibit. The humans gave Punch an Ikea orangutan stuffed toy because it provided the comfort and security missing from his life. The photos and videos of Punch clinging to his toy after other monkeys slapped him away broke the Internet’s collective heart. Like millions of others, I consumed this sadness porn like it was candy. The sight of this human-looking primate seeking solace did not just evoke pity; people were willing to go to battle for Punch. A baby Japanese macaque named Punch drags a stuffed orangutan at Ichikawa City Zoo, in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, February 19, 2026. — Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon Some felt that keepers should inter...

As the Climate Week Karachi 2026 came to a close on February 4, the urgency for climate action was palpable across panels and community dialogues, with one message reiterated loud and clear by experts and policymakers: Pakistan can no longer afford business as usual on climate change. Adaptation and resilience must move from paper to action . Climate change is no longer a future threat, but a lived reality in Pakistan today, manifesting regularly in the form of melting glaciers and heat waves, erratic rainfall, and flooding. According to the United Nations Development Programme, rising global temperatures are accelerating glacier retreat in Pakistan, with almost 10,000 glaciers having receded in recent years, leading to floods and future water scarcity. Meanwhile, erratic rainfall patterns have made the country vulnerable to floods and droughts. The 2025 monsoon season displaced about 3.5 million people in Pakistan and left 1.6m in Sindh at the risk of flooding, per data compiled ...

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks about a plan to ally with India and other countries to counter Muslim nations. The resolution moved in the House by PPP’s Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan deplored the continued provocative steps and statements by the Israeli leadership that threatened the regional and international peace and stability, including the latest statement about forming “alliances” against Muslim nations. Addressing a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “will create an entire system — essentially a kind of hexagon of alliances — around or within the Middle East”, Times of Israel reported . Netanyahu listed India, Greece, Cyprus, and “unnamed Arab, African and Asian countries”, the report added. “The intention here is to create an axis of countries that see reality, the challenges, and the goals in the same way, in contrast to the radical axes...

The glow of his phone screen often marks the end of Mohammad Daniyal Shahid’s day. A final-year MBBS student, buried in exam preparation, says his nights are the only moments that feel truly his. “The whole day is scheduled, lectures, wards, studying,” he says. “Night is the only time that feels like my own.” Between lectures, clinical rotations and the relentless pressure of becoming a doctor, Daniyal squeezes his passions, travel, fitness and photography, into whatever hours he can reclaim. A young woman looking at her phone while in bed at night. — Canva AI But when he checks his screen-time report, often stretching beyond four or five hours, the realisation hits. “I think I’ll scroll for a few minutes, and suddenly it’s 2am,” he says. “That’s when I realise I’ve delayed sleep again.” Those late-night hours are both comforting and costly. For Daniyal, they are a way of taking control, a quiet rebellion against packed schedules and constant responsibilities. “It feels like I’...

THE timing may be questioned, but the issue is not new. The PPP and the MQM-P are once again engaging in their old tug of war over who ‘owns’ Karachi, using bombast to stake their claims. The Sindh Assembly last Saturday passed a resolution, tabled by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, to condemn “any conspiracy aimed at the division of Sindh or the creation of a separate province comprising Karachi”. The resolution affirmed that Karachi shall “forever remain” an integral part of Sindh. The MQM leadership protested at the resolution during its passage, and convened especially to declare it an “attack on the federation”. “This [resolution] challenged Pakistan, its Constitution, its law and its state,” an MQM leader declared at the party’s press conference. It was remarkable that the leaders of the MQM’s component factions were able to come together on the matter, given the bitter infighting the party — whose years of rule in Karachi yielded little more than a few flyovers — has seen in...

PESHAWAR: Unidentified attackers blew up a school in the Birmal tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan in the late hours of Monday, the police said on Tuesday. According to District Police Officer (DPO) South Waziristan Lower Muhammad Tahir Shah Wazir, the explosion destroyed parts of the Government Middle School (GMS) Boys’ Sharif Khan Kot, including two classrooms, bathrooms, the main gate, and one side of the boundary wall. Initial reports confirmed no casualties were reported. The blast was so powerful that it was heard in distant areas. According to police sources, nearby houses were also affected. Solar panels, walls, and windows sustained partial damage from the blast. Following the explosion, police launched an investigation into the incident and began collecting evidence from the site. Local authorities reiterated their commitment to ensuring the safety of educational institutions and maintaining peace in the region. Meanwhile, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi str...