Infinity Social Updates

As Brazil and Japan clashed in a thrilling FIFA knockout game on Monday, fans in Karachi’s Lyari neighbourhood held their breath to see which team would advance to the last 16. Football fanatics of all ages gathered at Lyari International Football Stadium for a jam-packed screening of the match played in Houston. Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab also joined them at the stadium, which has been hosting screenings of FIFA World Cup 2026 matches. Brazil — which is widely favoured in Lyari, earning the area the nickname “Mini Brazil” — emerged victorious, leaving the stadium filled with joy as spectators celebrated. Dawn takes a look at the scenes that played out during the tense match, where a 96th-minute goal by substitute Gabriel Martinelli helped Brazil secure its place in the last 16. People stand outside Lyari International Football Stadium in Karachi ahead of a FIFA World Cup match between Brazil and Japan, on June 29, 2026. — Tahir Jamal For most of the...

RAWALPINDI: A first information report (FIR) was registered on Tuesday against the 14 prisoners who escaped from a police van a day earlier while being transported to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, with fresh details emerging that the fugitives threw red chilli powder at the police officials escorting them to facilitate their escape. Along with the 14 accused, the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn , also nominated five police officials who were present at the site of the incident, which occurred within the jurisdiction of the Sihala police station in Islamabad, for neglecting their respective duties, enabling the prisoners to escape. The complaint was registered under the following provisions of law: Sections 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to their lawful apprehension), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging their duty), 186 (obstructing a public servant in the discharge of public functions), 34 (acts done by several persons in fur...

Rescuers from around the world pushed on Tuesday to save any final survivors trapped under mountains of rubble after Venezuela’s massive quakes that killed over 1,700 people , with tens of thousands still unaccounted for. The twin quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 — the strongest to hit the South American nation in more than a century — likely damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings, according to a preliminary assessment of satellite data published by Nasa. By the latest official count, some 1,700 are dead and 5,000 are injured, with no governmental word on the number of missing. Other estimates place these in the tens of thousands. At the only public cemetery in the capital Caracas, the two crematory ovens have been working at full capacity. Between Friday and Sunday, 60 to 70 burials were held each day. A cry of “Mom, I love you!” rose above a steady low sobbing and the sound of shovels mixing cement. When workers began to seal the niche of his nephew, ...

Turkiye must be included in all of Europe’s defence and security structures, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, a week ahead of a key Nato summit in Ankara. His remarks come as Europe seeks to revamp its defences in light of the threat from Russia and the risk of a US pullback from Nato, as the military alliance gears up for a key summit in the Turkish capital on July 7-8. “Turkiye’s indispensable contributions to European security are sometimes overlooked,” Erdogan told parliamentary delegates from all 32 Nato member states in Istanbul, saying Turkiye wanted “to participate in all defence and security initiatives” on the continent. At issue is Turkiye’s access to the European Union’s 150-billion-euro ($176bn) Security Action for Europe (Safe) initiative, a scheme key to strengthening European defence capabilities. Although Turkiye is technically eligible to access the Safe initiative, it requires approval from all 27 EU members — something Greece has threatened to bloc...

In today’s day and age, terrorism is not merely enabled by ideology and technology but also most effectively by an epistemic strategy that sacralises the ideological lineaments of the terrorists’ main creed. A concrete indication of this trend is the Taliban government’s use of sophisticated strategic communication tools through epistemic proxies like the Al Mirsaad , a web-based publication funded and directed by Taliban regime’s General Directorate of Intelligence’s media wing. Recently, the Al Mirsaad’s credentials as a Taliban mouthpiece were exposed by a report, “Heretics, Adversaries, & Legitimacy” by the Durand Despatch , an independent digital news organisation that specialises in security and counter-terrorism affairs in Afghanistan and South Asia. The analysis of the Al Mirsaad ’s 137 articles, published between October 2025 and March 2026, identified a pattern of deification of the internationally isolated and delegitimised Taliban regime. The Taliban’s messaging s...

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Saturday suspended with “immediate effect” Geo News ’ licence for 15 days over airing a special transmission that the body said was “liable to hurt the religious sentiments of viewers”. In an order addressed to the chief executive officer of Independent Media Corporation (IMC) on June 28, Pemra said the licence issued to IMC for “ Geo News was suspended for a period of 15 days with immediate effect from the issuance.” Issued under Section 30 of the Pemra Ordinance 2002 , the order citing the authority’s monitoring wing said that the broadcast of Geo News ’ special transmission “constitutes a serious regulatory concern” due to religious, cultural and social sensitivities. Pemra noted in its order that the aired content was inconsistent with the obligations of a licensee under sections 20(b), (c), (d) and (f) of the Pemra Ordinance . Section 20(b) mandates a licensee to ensure the preservation of “national, cultural, soci...

Google has put limits on Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models after the social media company sought more computing capacity than the rival tech group could provide, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Google, owned by Alphabet, told Meta around March it could not meet the full Gemini capacity the company had sought to purchase, the newspaper said, adding that the shortfall disrupted and delayed some of Meta’s internal AI projects. Several other Google clients have also been affected, though to a lesser extent, according to the report. Meta has been particularly impacted due to its exceptionally high demand for Google’s models, the FT said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Google and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours. Due to the restrictions, Meta has encouraged staff to be more efficient with AI tokens, the units that measure AI usage, the...