Infinity Social Updates

Former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was one step away from becoming Britain’s next prime minister on Friday after being appointed leader of the governing Labour Party . Following are the policies he has spoken about since returning to parliament in June, which offer an insight into how he could govern Britain to try to overcome a cost-of-living crisis, revive anaemic economic growth and win back voters. Decentralisation of power Burnham has promised to “bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”. His focus is on Whitehall, a part of London dotted with government departments where public officials help elected ministers devise and implement policy, which he said had become overly powerful to the detriment of Britain’s regions. “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up,” he said in a speech on June 29. While focusing initially on England, where 85 per cen...

In May earlier this year, Islamabad and Beijing commemorated the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, with the bilateral discourse predictably gravitating toward familiar flourishes. Bonds “higher than the Himalayas and stronger than steel” once again resurfaced in official handouts and state-level speeches. Yet, beneath the ceremonial surface of this milestone, a more consequential structural transformation is being engineered. Over the course of this 75-year arc, the relationship has gradually evolved from a traditional diplomatic alignment into a highly structured economic partnership. What was once framed in exclusively strategic terms has increasingly been recast as a matrix of economic and technological cooperation. This ongoing evolution has allowed both capitals to systematically convert a long-standing political bond into a more functional, project-driven engine. The bilateral partnership is now attempting to pivot from an early-stage, state-led infrastructure programm...

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate at the Cantonment Courts granted police 14-day judicial remand of four suspects, including one related to a senior political figure , in a case of alleged kidnapping and rape of two foreign women. One of those two women is a national of the Netherlands and the other of Venezuela, and a case of their alleged abduction and sexual assault was registered on July 2. Subsequently, police had arrested four of the suspects and were initially granted their five-day physical remand on July 3. The suspects’ remand was extended twice in the following days, last on July 13 . They were produced before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood on Friday, following the expiry of their physical remand. The investigating officer (IO) submitted a progress report before the court and requested that the suspects now be sent on judicial remand. The magistrate accepted the request and sent the four suspects on judicial remand for 14 days. During the hearing, the state prosecu...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday mandatory annual testosterone screening for troops 30 years old or above, an initiative he said was aimed at combating testosterone deficiency that can undermine health. Hegseth said the screening could lead to troops being offered testosterone replacement therapy aimed at “ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best”. “Because it’s well-established science that as we age, testosterone levels often naturally drop,” he said in a video message. The screening would become part of annual testing for troops aged 30 and above, and troops could voluntarily decide whether to accept any recommended hormone replacement treatment if they were diagnosed with low testosterone levels. Troops below the age of 30 could request to be tested. The move comes as the US Department of Health and Human Services has moved to ease some restrictions on testosterone re...

PESHAWAR: A house fire in the Tehkal Payan area of Peshawar killed a couple and their four children on Thursday, Rescue 1122 said. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmed Faizi told Dawn that the rescue service received the report of the fire at around 2:30am. After reaching the site of the incident, it took the rescue team 45 minutes to bring the fire under control. The team recovered the bodies of six people from a room during its search operation. These included a husband, wife and their four children — three girls aged 11, nine, and three years, and a four-year-old boy. The man was a local worker of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Fazl (JUI-F), according to a statement issued by the party about the incident. According to Faizi, the fire apparently started in a storage area, where furniture and mattresses were kept and spread to other parts of the residential house. However, he said that the blaze was so intense that the family was likely unable to leave the single room t...

Pakistan’s recent diplomatic efforts for achieving sustainable peace in the deserve to be assessed not by whether they produced an immediate US-Iran agreement, but by what they strategically accomplished. First, it helped create diplomatic space at a critical moment, reducing the risk of a disastrous regional escalation. Second, it contributed to bringing Washington and Tehran into direct high-level engagement after nearly five decades of estrangement, demonstrating that dialogue remained possible even amid military confrontation. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the process helped identify the real sticking point around which any future negotiations must ultimately be built. Whenever tensions between the United States and Iran dominate international headlines, the debate almost invariably revolves around Iran’s nuclear programme. Yet, this focus often obscures the deeper strategic issue that has repeatedly frustrated diplomatic efforts. The nuclear file is important, but it is n...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday met with the secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Nurlan Yermekbayev, and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to advancing its objectives, the Foreign Office (FO) said. In a post on X, the FO said that Dar received Yermekbayev, with the two holding a “productive exchange” on the SCO priorities and ways to further strengthen cooperation among member states in key areas, including economy, transport, and connectivity. “They also exchanged views on regional and international developments. The secretary general commended Pakistan’s constructive contributions to promoting regional peace, stability, and cooperation,” the FO said. “The secretary general shared his perspective and proposals for further enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the SCO, and briefed DPM Dar on preparations for the forthcoming SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting i...

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, according to a post on the Turkish Presidency’s X account. The presidency’s post on Tuesday, which also had a picture of the two, said Erdogan received Munir at the Ankara airport. Reuters reported that the meeting was held behind closed doors at the Ankara airport. The report said that Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, Chief of Turkish General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Director Ibrahim Kalin also attended the meeting. Separately, an X post by the Turkish embassy in Pakistan said CDF Munir was accorded a guard of honour by a tri-services contingent of the Turkish armed forces following his arrival in Ankara. General Bayraktaroglu welcomed him during his official visit, the post said. “Rooted in brotherhood, mutual trust and a shared strateg...

Teacher Raja Dey fears attendance might drop now that government-run schools have stopped serving eggs for lunch in his eastern Indian state, a dietary change that has stirred a political storm. The humble egg, a popular food in West Bengal, was taken off the menu after the state’s recently elected Hindu nationalist government said a religious charity will provide free, vegetarian cooked meals in state-run schools. The new arrangement has rekindled a long-running debate over food, faith and nutrition in the world’s most populous country, with critics accusing the government of trying to turn schoolchildren vegetarian. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time in regional elections held in May, often promotes vegetarianism as a part of its nationalist agenda, although most Indian Hindus eat meat and fish. Eggs, which Hindus generally consider non-vegetarian, are even more widely consumed. Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Two cops were martyred and as many injured on Monday in what police suspect was an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district. Sources in police told Dawn it appeared that an IED was used to target an armoured personnel carrier (APC) of the police in the incident that took place on Tank-Jandola Road. They said initial reports suggested that the IED was planted along the roadside and was detonated while the APC was on routine patrol in the limits of Shaheed Mureed Akbar Police Station. Consequently, Assistant Sub-Inspector Fareedullah and Constable Akhtar Zaman were martyred while Constables Abdul Malik and Qudratullah sustained injuries, the sources said. They added that the injured were taken to the district headquarters hospital. The sources said security forces and police had cordoned off the site of the incident. Police had also launched a search operation, and evidence from the scene was also being collected, the sources s...

LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar and his wife, both of whom have been facing legal proceedings for allegedly harassing television actress Momina Iqbal, till July 28. Chadhar appeared before the court accompanied by his lawyers, while his wife was absent from the proceedings. During the hearing, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) investigating officer sought more time to complete the investigation. Subsequently, Additional District and Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqi extended the couple’s bail until July 28, directing the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing. The NCCIA had registered the case against Chadhar and his wife early last month on a complaint filed by Iqbal. The case was registered under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber ...

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Sunday decided to establish a “grand” Kashmir peace jirga to facilitate dialogue between the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government and the banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) in an effort to restore stability and normalcy in the region. The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s central Majlis-i-Shura chaired by JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman at Mansoorah, Lahore. According to a press release, the jirga will engage both the government and the JAAC, with the restoration of peace and the resolution of issues in AJK identified as its top priorities. To oversee the initiative, Rehman constituted a committee headed by JI Deputy Emir Liaqat Baloch. The committee included JI AJK Emir Dr Muhammad Mushtaq Khan and the party’s former regional chiefs Abdul Rashid Turabi and Dr Khalid Mahmood. The JI chief also indicated that the committee would be expanded to include former civil bureaucrats, retired judges, ex-military officials and members of civil soc...

Politicians, journalists and experts have taken to social media to criticise Friday’s approval by a Senate panel of a bill allowing blue passports for ex-legislators’ children under the age of 28. If it becomes law, the legislation would bring ex-members of parliament in line with the existing entitlement available to dependent children of retired Grade-22 government officers. State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry denied that he supported the bill, saying he opposed it when it was introduced in the Senate. He further asserted that he had told the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control, which passed the legislation, that the matter should first be discussed with the federal cabinet and relevant stakeholders. “Despite my reservations, the Senate & Standing Committee on Interior proceeded with its decision to pass the bill,” he said. Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique condemned the bill, comparing i...

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Washington on Monday to deepen strategic ties with the United States, with oil and gas deals expected to be signed as part of a broader push for economic, trade and investment cooperation. Iraq has been seeking to balance its ties with neighbouring Iran and the US as military escalation between the two rivals continues. “The agreements to be signed will include several memorandums of understanding in the oil and gas sector as Iraq prepares to bring in various US companies that will provide momentum to increase oil production capacity,” government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said. Iraq’s state news agency, citing al-Aboudi, said the planned oil and gas agreements would also seek to create alternative export outlets to reduce Iraq’s exposure to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz . Iraq, like other Gulf oil producers, has suffered a drop in oil revenue due to the effective closure of the vital shipping route during the US-Iran war. Al-...

Pundits and former players highlighted India’s struggles with the bat on Saturday after the Twenty20 World Cup champions suffered back-to-back series defeats by England and Ireland. England beat India by 56 runs in the fifth and final T20I at Southampton, the hosts sealing a 4-0 series win after the opener ended in a no result due to rain. That series defeat came after Ireland had completed a 2-0 T20 whitewash last month. Player-turned-commentator Dinesh Karthik said India’s batting unit had looked out of rhythm throughout the tour. “I think India have a problem adapting to a little bit of extra bounce,” he told cricket news site Cricbuzz . “The middle order looks wobbly, not confident, and it is definitely not the Indian team that we saw during the World Cup or before it in bilateral series, where they took down opponents and actually imposed a lot of fear. Where has that gone?” India captain Shreyas Iyer said their failure to adapt to different conditions had cost them in the...

When four-time World Cup winners Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament, then head coach Gennaro Gattuso lamented that Africa had so many places at the global showcase. “Africa deserves fewer World Cup slots,” he said, referring to the number of automatic qualifying places allocated to that continent rising from five to nine in an expanded 48-nation event. It became 10 when the Democratic Republic of Congo won an inter-continental play-off and returned to the World Cup after 52 years. Was Gattuso, a midfielder in the Italian 2006 World Cup-winning team, correct? Was Africa over-represented in the United States, Canada and Mexico? Apart from a disastrous showing by Tunisia, who axed coach Sabri Lamouchi after their first group game and lost all three matches, African flag-bearers proved competitive, justifying their presence. The other nine representatives reached the knockout stage, five as group runners-up. The other four were among the eight best third-placed teams. ...

US President Donald Trump faced questions about the security of his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, after he took an older jet home from a NATO summit this week. The billionaire president has been unable to contain his excitement over the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which took him to Ankara on its maiden trip outside the United States. Trump then abruptly announced in Turkey that he would send the aircraft ahead to a British airbase saying the decision was made to allow US troops to tour the luxury plane. The New York Times reported on Friday that the new plane lacked the same security countermeasures boasted by the older jet, including anti-missile defenses. US media also reported that the Secret Service had advised the switch. Speculation was fueled by the fact that US hostilities had flared again with Iran, which borders Turkey, and because journalists on the old plane out of Ankara were also told to keep their window blinds down, a step normally reserved ...

US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run. Speaking with Reuters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank, where residents face frequent settler attacks. “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” said Khanna, a progressive lawmaker from California in the US House of Representatives. “And these hoodlums come in with machine guns, M4, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF, and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna said, referring to the Israeli mili...

Renowned Islamic scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani has declared purchasing goods with cryptocurrency “impermissible”, citing research conducted by experts so far which found that cryptocurrency does not qualify as “wealth”, it emerged on Friday. The fatwa was originally issued by Darul Ifta, Jamia Darul Uloom, Karachi, and dated 24 Zilhaj 1447 AH (June 10, 2026). Apart from Mufti Usmani, a former judge of the Federal Shariat Court, five other prominent scholars are its signatories. Responding to a question about purchasing books with cryptocurrency, the fatwa said: “It is not permissible for you to purchase the books in question using cryptocurrency.” “According to research and opinion of experts so far, cryptocurrency is not considered ‘ maal ’ (wealth) in Sharia. Instead, it is merely the recording of fictitious numbers in an account, whether in the form of USDT or other crypto tokens,” it stated. As cryptocurrency was not recognised as wealth, the fatwa maintained that the buyer did not...

As flames approached their homes and the smoke-filled air became choking, panicked residents in rural Andalusian villages around Los Gallardos in southern Spain chose to flee, a decision some paid for with their lives. Firefighters on Friday were still trying to contain one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires , with a total of 11 people confirmed dead, while 19 more are missing. A firefighting vehicle stands next to a Spanish Civil Guard vehicle as residents get ready to leave their homes while smoke and flames rise during a wildfire in Los Gallardos, Almeria, Spain on July 10, 2026. —Reuters Authorities told some residents of areas in the mountains above Los Gallardos to evacuate via a recommended route, while residents of the forested hamlet of Bedar were told to shelter in place. However, as the flames rapidly approached, Antonio Rubio, a handyman living in Bedar, said the smoke had made it impossible to shelter in place. “We left the house yesterday (Thur...