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Dawn - 09:24 Jul 02, 2025
The online retail platform of Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced on Wednesday that it will issue $7 billion in subsidies for certain purchases, providing a much-needed boost for a country struggling with sluggish spending. Taobao, China’s e-commerce champion launched by Alibaba in 2003, said in a WeChat statement that the 50bn yuan ($6.97bn) would “directly subsidise consumers and merchants” over a 12-month period starting Wednesday. The spending incentives on Taobao’s “flash purchase” feature will take the form of “red envelopes” — a digital form of traditional cash gifts — as well as discounts on products, deliveries and commissions, the statement said. Taobao said that the subsidies will “provide consumers with preferential and convenient services and experiences, further stimulating consumption vitality”. Beijing is battling to stave off deflationary pressure, which has threatened to dampen economic growth even as challenges elsewhere mount. A lengthy property sector crisis and a fierce trade war with t... -
Dawn - 09:11 Jul 02, 2025
Pakistan and India are expected to play against each other “likely” on September 7 in the Asia Cup 2025 — set to begin on September 4 or 5 in the UAE, according to a report by The Times of India on Wednesday. The T-20 tournament will mark the 17th edition of the Asia Cup, beginning with a group stage and then a super-four round. The participating teams include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and the UAE. According to Asia Cup’s website, recent political tensions between India and Pakistan have made UAE the frontrunner to host the tournament or serve as part of a hybrid hosting model. The multi-nation tournament was initially going to be hosted solely by India. According to the Indian media report, a 17-day window has been almost finalised by the Asian Cricket Council, where India and Pakistan are to clash on September 7. The two teams could also see a second match on September 14, depending on how the teams progress. The report said that all the participating teams are currently in the pr... -
Dawn - 08:47 Jul 02, 2025
The Quad grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia called on Tuesday for the perpetrators of a militant attack that killed 26 in India-occupied Kashmir to be brought to justice without delay. The April 22 attack in held Kashmir’s Pahalgam sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry as India blamed it on Pakistan, which strongly denied the allegations while calling for a neutral investigation. The US State Department issued a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the grouping, who met in Washington, but stopped short of naming Pakistan or blaming Islamabad. “The Quad unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism,” the ministers said in the statement. They called on all members of the United Nations to cooperate actively with “all relevant authorities” in delivering justice to the “perpetrators, organisers, and financiers of this r... -
Dawn - 07:42 Jul 02, 2025
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender athletes from its women’s sports teams, settling a federal civil rights case stemming from the furore around swimmer Lia Thomas, the US government said on Tuesday. The US Department of Education said in a statement that UPenn had entered into a resolution agreement vowing to comply with Title IX, the federal law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program. It follows an investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights, which found the university had violated Title IX by allowing transgender swimmer Thomas to compete in women’s competitions in 2021-2022. US President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of trans athletes, has worked to prohibit them from competing in girls’ and women’s sports since returning to office. Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender athletes, allowing federal agencies to halt funding to any institution that does not consider birth-assigned genders in dete... -
Dawn - 06:59 Jul 02, 2025
LAHORE: Strong reaction on social media seems to have forced the Punjab government to take a ‘U-turn’ on naming the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. “The name of the institution remains ‘Jinnah Institute of Cardiology, Lahore’ and no change is under consideration. In the Punjab government’s annual development programme for the fiscal year 2025-26, funding has been allocated under the name Jinnah Institute of Cardiology,” Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a post on ‘X’ on Tuesday. “As part of the efforts to provide world-class treatment for cardiac and other diseases, 14 new hospitals will be established in the Nawaz Sharif Medical District. The master plan for this project is near completion,” Ms Aurangzeb said and asked journalists to “verify the facts” before publishing any news. The controversy stemmed from the speech of the chief minister in the Punjab Assembly and a subsequent statement by Punjab Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique. The minister... -
Dawn - 06:40 Jul 02, 2025
A satellite backed by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been lost in space while carrying out an important climate change mission, New Zealand officials said on Wednesday. Designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions with “unprecedented resolution”, the MethaneSAT space probe was also funded by Wellington and the US-based Environmental Defence Fund. Plagued with technical problems, the satellite recently stopped responding to its Earth-bound controllers. “Clearly, this is a disappointing development,” said Andrew Johnson, a senior official at the New Zealand Space Agency. “As those who work in the space sector know, space is inherently challenging, and every attempt — successful or not — pushes the boundaries of what we know and what we’re capable of.” The Environmental Defence Fund, which led the project, said it was “difficult news” but would not be the end of its methane-tracking efforts. MethaneSAT was designed to measure emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, which fuels climate change by trappi... -
Dawn - 06:21 Jul 02, 2025
GWADAR: The Ministry of Maritime Affairs has announced an ambitious plan to expand Gwadar Port’s operational capacity by introducing additional shipping lines and launching a ferry service connecting Pakistan with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The announcement was made during a high-level meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry on Tuesday. Senior ministry officials also attended the session. To launch ferry service connecting Pakistan with GCC countries “The initiative is part of the government’s strategy to enhance regional connectivity, boost maritime trade and position Gwadar as a major hub in the Arabian Sea,” Mr Chaudhry said. “We aim to transform Gwadar into a strategic transhipment and logistics centre, benefiting Pakistan and the wider region.” He emphasised that with Gwadar Port now fully operational, it is time to accelerate its integration into international maritime networks. He directed relevant departments to pursue all necessary ... -
Dawn - 18:55 Jul 01, 2025
The Republican-led US Senate approved President Donald Trump’s mammoth domestic policy bill on Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, despite misgivings over delivering deep welfare cuts and another $3 trillion in national debt. Republican leaders had struggled to corral support during a record 24-hour “vote-a-rama” amendment session on the Senate floor, as Democrats offered dozens of challenges to the most divisive aspects of the package. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune was able to turn around wavering moderates to deliver a 50-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The sprawling text now heads to the House of Representatives, where it faces unified Democratic opposition and multiple Republicans baulking at the budget-busting costs, as well as slashed health care and food aid programmes for poor Americans. Trump’s bill proposes a $4.5tr extension of his first-term tax cuts, contentiously offset with $1.2tr in savings mainly targeting the Medicaid health insurance programme, as well as fe... -
Dawn - 17:54 Jul 01, 2025
Donald Trump and Elon Musk reignited their bitter feud on Tuesday, with the US president threatening to deport the tech tycoon and strip federal funds from his businesses for criticising Trump’s flagship spending bill. The world’s richest person was Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election, and became his inseparable ally during his first months back in the White House as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But the Space X and Tesla boss is now threatening to turn his riches against Trump, mulling a rival political party to challenge Republican lawmakers who vote for the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Trump, 79, reacted vengefully today as he headed to the opening of a new migrant detention centre in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”. “We’ll have to take a look,” he told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who has held US citizenship since 2002. View this post on Instagram Trump also signalled that he could take aim at the huge contracts and subsi... -
Dawn - 17:41 Jul 01, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that the government has decided to enhance the country’s water storage capacity, given India’s designs to weaponise water. India in April held the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance following the attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 — an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad without evidence. The treaty allocates the Indus Basin’s six rivers between the two countries: India gets the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej), while Pakistan receives nearly 80 per cent of the water from the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab). Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an “act of war”, noting the IWT had no provision for unilateral suspension. It later said it was considering court action, citing a violation of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in Hague also ruled India cannot unilaterally suspend or hold the IWT in abeyance. During a visit to the National Emergencies Operations C... -
Dawn - 17:17 Jul 01, 2025
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from duty pending a case seeking her dismissal, in a major setback for a government under fire on multiple fronts and fighting for its survival. The court accepted a petition from 36 senators accusing Paetongtarn of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards, based on a leak of a sensitive telephone call with Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen that was intended to de-escalate a territorial row and tense troop buildup at their border. The leaked June 15 call triggered domestic fury and has left Paetongtarn’s coalition with a razor-thin majority after a big party abandoned the alliance and accused her of undermining sovereignty, as protest groups threaten more demonstrations to demand a new government. Paetongtarn’s battles after only 10 months in office underline an intractable power struggle between the billionaire Shinawatra dynasty and an influential establishment backed by the army — a two-decade grudge mat... -
Dawn - 17:02 Jul 01, 2025
Pakistan remained unbeaten in the Asian Youth Netball Championship after defeating the Maldives 49-39 on Tuesday to cruise into the semi-final. Today’s play marked the Green Shirts’ fifth and final group match at the Jeonju Hwasan Gymnasium in South Korea, and puts them at the top of Pool B with 10 points. The first quarter saw tough competition with Pakistan scoring 14-12 against the Maldives, who dominated in the second quarter to end at 24-26 at halftime. Pakistan marginally took the lead in the third quarter at 35-32 before ending the match at 49-39. View this post on Instagram According to the new format introduced by Netball Asia, the semifinals will be contested between the top four teams of both divisions: Group A (Gold Cup Division) and Group B (Plate Cup Division) with cross-group matchups: 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd. Pakistan will face Japan again in the semi-final of the Plate Cup Division on Thursday, July 3, having previously defeated them 79-39 a day earlier. Today’s match saw strong performance... -
Dawn - 16:31 Jul 01, 2025
A panel of Indian lawmakers will review safety in the country’s civil aviation sector and has invited several industry and government officials to answer questions on July 9, with topics set to include Air India’s recent plane crash. The upper house of India’s parliament has asked airport operators, air traffic controllers and airlines including Air India and IndiGo INGL.NS to take part in a comprehensive review of passenger safety, according to a memo drafted for the meeting and seen by Reuters. The gathering comes after the June 12 Air India disaster that killed 260 people, including 241 on board, when a Boeing BA.N 787-8 jet crashed within a minute of take-off from India’s Ahmedabad. Investigators are still probing what caused the world’s worst aviation accident in a decade. Though the memo did not mention the crash, R K Chaudhary, a lawmaker on the panel, told Reuters that it planned to discuss the matter internally and during the meeting. “If we will not raise questions on it, they (airlines) will not be... -
Dawn - 16:00 Jul 01, 2025
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a law on Monday prohibiting individuals from wearing clothing in public places that covers their faces, joining a trend in several Central Asian countries to restrict forms of Islamic dress. The text of the law says clothing that “interferes with facial recognition” will be banned in public, with exemptions for medical purposes, in adverse weather conditions and at sporting and cultural events. The legislation, one in a series of wider amendments signed into law on Monday, does not explicitly mention religion or types of religious dress. Tokayev has previously praised the legislation as an opportunity to celebrate ethnic identity in Kazakhstan, a majority-Muslim country and former Soviet republic. “Rather than wearing face-concealing black robes, it’s much better to wear clothes in the national style,” he was quoted by Kazakh media as saying earlier this year. “Our national clothes vividly emphasise our ethnic identity, so we need to popularise them comprehensivel... -
Dawn - 15:40 Jul 01, 2025
Defending champion Barbora Krejcikova survived a stiff examination from promising 20-year-old Filipina Alexandra Eala before finding her groove to triumph 3-6 6-2 6-1 on her return to Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Tuesday. Czech Krejcikova, a shock winner as 31st seed last year and seeded 17th this time, came into the tournament short on form after a succession of injuries and initially had no answer to the confident, free-swinging Eala, who is the first woman from the Philippines to play at Wimbledon. Eala turned 20 in May and was making her first Wimbledon appearance, but she immediately looked at home in the daunting surroundings of the sport’s most iconic court. Krejcikova forced the first break in the third game; however, Eala hit straight back, swinging her lefty forehand freely and throwing in a beautifully disguised drop shot. She then upped the ante, holding confidently and breaking again as her two-fisted backhand came to the fore and, from 2-1 down with a break against, Eala reeled off four games in ... -
Dawn - 14:55 Jul 01, 2025
Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal sent English giants Manchester City crashing out of the Club World Cup on Monday, snatching a shock 4-3 victory in extra time in the biggest upset of the tournament so far. The match finished 2-2 at full-time but at the end of an eventful extra-time Marcos Leonardo grabbed the winner and pulled off one of the greatest wins in Middle Eastern football history. The Saudi club advances to the quarter-finals where they will face Brazilian club Fluminense, ensuring a non-European team will reach the last four. City had taken the lead in the ninth minute in controversial fashion, Bernardo Silva finishing after Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross. Al Hilal players protested that Ait-Nouri had controlled with his arm in the build-up but the goal stood. City had plenty of opportunities to extend their lead before the break but a combination of poor finishing and inspired goalkeeping from Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou kept the lead at a single goal. Al Hilal offered several reminders of their threat... -
Dawn - 14:21 Jul 01, 2025
Pakistan witnessed a slight overall decline in militant violence during June 2025 despite several high-profile attacks, according to data released by an Islamabad-based think tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (Picss). The monthly security assessment shows there were a total of 78 militant attacks across the country in June, resulting in at least 100 fatalities, including 53 security personnel, 39 civilians, six militants, and two members of peace committees, the organisation said in a press statement. These attacks injured 189 people, comprising 126 security personnel and 63 civilians — marking an 8 per cent decrease in attacks, a 12pc drop in fatalities, and pc increase in injuries compared to May 2025. “In response to militant activities, Pakistani security forces intensified counterterrorism operations during the month,” the statement added. According to Picss, security forces killed 71 militants, while two security personnel and two civilians also lost their lives in operations la... -
Dawn - 14:20 Jul 01, 2025
The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Tuesday appointed the chief justices to the four high courts, a statement issued by the Supreme Court said. Per the statement, the JCP held four consecutive meetings to make a decision related to the appointments and, by a majority of its total membership in each meeting, opted to allow the acting chief justices to continue serving the top roles. Letters were subsequently issued to the prime minister’s principal secretary, informing the government about the nominations and requesting the forwarding of the same to the president for their appointment. The letters said that Justice Sarfraz Dogar was nominated as the new chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), Justice Rozi Khan Barrech as the chief justice for the Balochistan High Court (BHC), Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah for the Peshawar High Court, and Justice Junaid Ghaffar for the Sindh High Court (SHC). President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday had already formally declared Justice Dogar the “senior-... -
Dawn - 14:19 Jul 01, 2025
Pakistan has called for the internal reform of the UN’s counterterrorism architecture with a balanced and rights-based global framework. The country was appointed as the vice chair of the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee on June 4. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the appointment reaffirmed the international community’s trust in the country’s counterterrorism credentials. A press release issued today by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN said that speaking at the UN headquarters a day earlier, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that the counterterrorism architecture should be capable of addressing Prolonged conflicts, while eliminating injustice, oppression and violations of international law under the pretext of counterterrorism, and ending conditions conducive to terrorism. “We must also clearly distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate struggle against foreign occupation and the right to self-determination,” he was qu... -
Dawn - 14:04 Jul 01, 2025
Pakistan women’s left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal took the top spot in the International Cricket Council Women’s Twenty-20 International (T20I) Bowler Rankings once again, cricket’s governing body announced on Tuesday. Sadia was pivotal to Pakistan’s win in the recently concluded ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Lahore and was named in the team of the tournament for her nine scalps for an average of 16. “Pakistan spinner Sadia Iqbal remains at the top of the list for T20I bowlers, but it’s tight at the top with just 44 rating point separating the top 10 players,” the ICC statement said. The statement also said that England pacer Lauren Bell climbed two spots to a career-best place of fourth on the latest rankings. Today’s announcement follows her ranking in May, where she also reclaimed the top position in ICC Women’s T20I Bowler Rankings. Last year in the T20 World Cup, Sadia claimed three wickets for Pakistan as the Green Team beat Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka in their opening encounter of that tournament. O...
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