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Dawn - 12:43 Jan 26, 2026
Pakistan’s benchmark index, the KSe-100, closed in red at 188,587.66, down 579.16 points (-0.31 per cent) from the previous close. The total volume was 449.8 million shares at a value of Rs43.56 billion. The market fell to its lowest point at 3:28pm PKT, hitting an intraday low of 188,268.38 points. This rally was on account of investors positioning for a further cut in the policy rate based on easing inflation, rising foreign exchange reserves, and a stable rupee. After the markets closed, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) maintained its key policy rate at 10.5 per cent on Monday during its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Brokerage house Topline Securities noted that this “came as a surprise” as a majority of their participants were expecting a rate cut. -
Dawn - 11:54 Jan 26, 2026
Bundled up in a yellow hat and black puffer jacket, Taylor was one of hundreds of protesters marching after the killing of a second US citizen this month by federal agents carrying out an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. The violence has put new pressure and scrutiny on US President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign, which has drawn demonstrators onto the streets of the Midwestern city. “I think it was completely senseless, it was murder,” said the young woman, who did not want to give her last name. Federal agents shot to death 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, claiming he intended to harm them during a confrontation on Saturday. However, a video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant and thrown to the ground. “I think the way that the government is bringing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in to take away our neighbours and to pull fami... -
Dawn - 11:45 Jan 26, 2026
The European Union (EU) on Monday hit Elon Musk’s social media platform X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the tool. Grok faces an outcry after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes”. “In Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. “It is simple — we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise. The harm caused by illegal images is very real,” she said in a statement to AFP. EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the probe would “determine whether X has met its legal obligations” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is designed to police internet giants. She said the rights of women and children in the EU... -
Dawn - 11:19 Jan 26, 2026
• Diplomats, press divided over New Delhi’s perceived reluctance to join Trump-led body • Given his propensity to paint himself as a global peacemaker, The Hindu warns US president may offer to mediate Kashmir dispute DESPITE being invited to join the ‘Board of Peace’ by President Donald Trump, India has yet to formally get involved in the process. Conspicuous by its absence from the Davos ceremony where 20 world leaders — including Trump and Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif — signed the board’s charter, some in India are viewing New Delhi’s reluctance through the lens of the Kashmir dispute. President Trump says the board’s goal is to make the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza permanent and oversee an interim government in the Palestinian territory. “This is not just for America, but for the whole world. I think we can spread it to other places. Like we did successfully in Gaza,” he had said at the time. But there seems to be concern among some circles that if India signs up for the board — which Trump ... -
Dawn - 10:43 Jan 26, 2026
A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced Dhaka’s fugitive former police chief and two senior colleagues to be hanged for crimes against humanity committed during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina. All three, including the capital’s former police chief, Habibur Rahman, were tried in absentia, and their whereabouts are not known. The verdict comes ahead of elections on February 12, the first in the South Asian country of 170 million people since Hasina’s overthrow in August 2024. Five other ex-police officers were sentenced to varying terms. The case concerned the killing of six protesters in Dhaka on August 5, 2024, the day Hasina fled to India as protesters stormed her palace. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations. “The police forces… opened fire with lethal weapons… causing death to the aforesaid six persons,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka.... -
Dawn - 10:39 Jan 26, 2026
Gold surged to a record high above $5,100 an ounce on Monday, extending a historic rally as investors piled into the safe-haven asset amid rising geopolitical uncertainties. Spot gold was up 2.2 per cent at $5,089.78 per ounce by 6:56am GMT, after earlier touching an all-time high of $5,110.50. US gold futures for February delivery also gained the same amount to $5,086.30 per ounce. The metal soared 64pc in 2025, its biggest annual gain since 1979, driven by safe-haven demand, US monetary policy easing, robust central bank purchases including China’s fourteenth straight month of buying in December, and record inflows into exchange-traded funds. Prices have set consecutive record peaks over the past week and have already risen more than 18pc this year. The latest catalyst “is effectively this crisis of confidence in the US administration and US assets, that was set off by some of the erratic decision-making from the Trump administration last week”, said Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com. US Pr... -
Dawn - 10:26 Jan 26, 2026
The country remained in the grip of a cold wave on Monday, with the National Weather Forecasting Centre (NWFC) saying that a new western disturbance is likely to persist in upper Pakistan until Tuesday. The NWFC, in its daily forecast, warned of traffic disruption due to heavy snowfall, causing road closures and slippery conditions in Naran, Kaghan, Dir, Swat, Kalam, Chitral, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Shangla, Astore, Hunza, Skardu, Murree, Galiyat, Neelum Valley, Bagh, Poonch, Haveli, Quetta, Ziarat, Chaman, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Qila Saifullah, Noshki, Harnai and Zhob. It added that there was a risk of landslides and avalanches in the mountainous areas of upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. “Tourists are advised to remain extra cautious and avoid unnecessary travelling during the forecast period,” it said. The NWFC forecast rain, wind, thunderstorms and snowfall in Balochistan, KP, Kashmir and GB on Monday. According to the forecast, heavy rain and moderate-to-heavy snowfall is al... -
Dawn - 09:39 Jan 26, 2026
Israel said on Monday it would only allow pedestrians to travel through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as part of its “limited reopening” once it has recovered the remains of the last captive in the Palestinian territory. Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed since Israeli forces took control of it during the conflict in the besieged Palestinian territory. Visiting US envoys had reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing during talks in Jerusalem over the weekend. World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pushed for more humanitarian convoys to be able to access Gaza, which has been left devastated by more than two years of bombardment and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food and other supplies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Israel had agreed to a reopening “for pedestrian passage only, ... -
Dawn - 08:55 Jan 26, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers staged a protest on Monday at the main gate of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the arrest and sentencing of lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, in the controversial social media posts case. The protest was led by IHC Bar President Syed Wajid Ali Gilani. Senior lawyer Babar Awan and a large number of advocates from the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), High Court Bar and District Bar also participated in the protest. They carried banners reading “Justice for Lawyers” and raised slogans against the police. Addressing the gathering, Awan said that “state and police terrorism” was being carried out against lawyers, adding that such actions were harmful for society. Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA), IBC and Islamabad District Bar jointly announced a strike. However, lawyers appeared in the high court only in urgent matters. Due to the protest, strict security arrangements were made in and around the IHC, with a heavy police contingent... -
Dawn - 07:44 Jan 26, 2026
China’s President Xi Jinping said Beijing and New Delhi were “good neighbours, friends and partners” as he wished Indian President Droupadi Murmu congratulations on the South Asian nation’s Republic Day, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. Xi said that over the past year, China-India relations have continued to improve and develop and are of “great significance for maintaining and promoting world peace and prosperity,” according to Xinhua. Xi said China has always believed that being “good neighbours, friends and partners” is the right choice for both China and India. He referred to China and India as the “dragon and the elephant dancing together,” Xinhua said. Xi said he hoped that both sides would expand exchanges and cooperation and address each other’s concerns to promote healthy and stable relations. The nuclear-armed Asian neighbours share a 3,800 km border that is poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s. Ties between the countries were shaken by a 2020 clash in which 20 ... -
Dawn - 05:52 Jan 26, 2026
A powerful winter storm spread a paralyzing mix of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Ohio Valley and mid-South to New England on Sunday, compounded by bitter, Arctic cold gripping much of the US east of the Rockies. Winter storm warnings were posted for most of the eastern third of the United States covering 118 million people, as the deep freeze strained energy supplies in some areas, and the National Weather Service predicted widespread, prolonged travel disruptions. An estimated 157 million Americans were warned to bundle up against cold ranging from sub-zero temperatures along the Canadian border to below-freezing as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The Arctic blast was accompanied by gusty conditions that sent wind-chill conditions a measure of how cold it feels based on the rate of heat loss from the body plunging as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern Plains. Deep snow, thick ice Some of the heaviest snowfall, up to one foot or more since the storm developed on Friday, was mea... -
Dawn - 19:23 Jan 25, 2026
Shafi Jan, the special aide to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister for information, on Sunday doubled down on the stance that the federal government had ordered a military operation in Tirah. The PTI-led KP government has repeatedly opposed military operations in the province, an issue that has created friction between the party, the centre and the establishment, with the latter accusing PTI of providing sanctuary to militants. Speaking on Geo News programme Naya Pakistan with Shehzad Iqbal, Jan said the 24-member Jirga, which agreed on the displacement from Tirah before the operation, was “forced” to sign. Referring to the federal government’s statement that it had not issued any orders for the “depopulation” of Tirah, Jan said a large-scale military operation was being “imposed” rather than routine intelligence-based operations. When asked about the Khyber deputy commissioner’s (DC) signatures, he said the DC signed the deal just to facilitate the people, because the government “knew that the people would be ... -
Dawn - 19:05 Jan 25, 2026
HAYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Haider Abbas Rizvi has reiterated the party’s demand for the formation of an inquiry commission by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, including members from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others, to probe the Gul Plaza inferno. Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Hyderabad, Rizvi said that MQM chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had also written a letter to the prime minister to seek the formation of an inquiry commission under the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 2017. “This commission must comprise representatives from FIA, IB, ISI, MI, NDMA and other federal bodies to find whether it is an act of subversion or an incident of fire”. He lambasted the Sindh government and Karachi administration for throwing debris of the fire, which also included remains of the deceased, at the Meva Shah ground, saying it would “compromise forensic investigation of the tragedy”. “It looks like evidence is being stolen,... -
Dawn - 18:56 Jan 25, 2026
KARACHI: The number of lives lost in the tragic Gul Plaza fire rose yet again on Sunday as two more bodies were recovered from the rubble, taking the death toll to 73. Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed confirmed to Dawn that the death toll has increased to 73. She added that so far, 23 deceased individuals have been identified, including 16 through DNA matching, six through facial identification and one because of their CNIC. Dr Syed stated that all DNA tests were being conducted at the Sindh Forensic DNA and Serology Lab at the University of Karachi. She shared a list of those identified so far: Kashif, son of Younus Aamir, son of Sulaiman Faraz, son of Anas Farooq, son of Anwar Furqan, son of Shoukat Mohammad Ali, son of Haji Habib Tanveer, son of Abdul Kaleem Mohammad Sharoz, son of Muhammad Iqbal Mohammad Athar, son of Shoukat Ali Sarfaraz, son of Noor Muhammad Mohammad Hanif, son of Abdul Ghani Misbah, daughter of Irfan Kausar Parveen, wife of Irfan Mohammad Saad, son of Muhammad Irfan Mohammad Ramzan, son... -
Dawn - 18:54 Jan 25, 2026
A peace committee member in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district was shot dead in a targeted killing near an Afghan refugee camp, while his cousin sustained serious injuries, the police said on Sunday. “The incident took place at the Afghan Refugees Camp in Domel tehsil, and the victims have been identified as Khwajatullah and Naseemullah,” the police said. “Both belonged to Gangi Khel.” The statement added that the incident occurred when Khwajatullah and Naseemullah were at a shop in Tehsil Colony to purchase groceries. “At that moment, two unidentified armed men arrived and opened indiscriminate fire on them,” it read. “As a result of the firing, Khwajatullah died on the spot, while Naseemullah was injured. The injured person was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he is currently under medical treatment.” In his statement to Domel Police, Naseemullah stated that the attack was sudden and that they had no personal enmity or dispute with anyone. District Police Officer Yasir Afridi said, “Investigat... -
Dawn - 18:53 Jan 25, 2026
Indonesian authorities resumed search-and-rescue efforts for 80 people missing after a landslide killed 10 in a residential area of West Java province. The landslide early on Saturday was triggered by heavy rains starting the day before, which the weather agency warned could continue for a week in the province and several other regions. Resident Dedi Kurniawan, 36, said it was the first big landslide he had witnessed in Pasir Langu village in a hilly area of the province about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. “Sometimes we have only small floods from the nearest river, but this time (the landslide) came from the forest,” he told Reuters. Rescuers were hampered on Saturday as unstable terrain and rain hindered them from deploying heavy machinery, Kompas TV reported, citing authorities. There were multiple reports of floods in West Java, including Jakarta. The floods have caused residents in heavily impacted areas to evacuate to higher ground or unaffected places. The landslide occur... -
Dawn - 18:32 Jan 25, 2026
The Ministry of Information has said that neither the armed forces nor the federal government has issued any orders for the “depopulation” of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tirah Valley, where residents have been vacating their houses amid concerns about a planned military operation against militants. “The government has taken notice of misleading claims in circulation regarding alleged ‘depopulation’ from Tirah Valley on the orders of the army. “These assertions are baseless, malicious, and driven by ulterior motives aimed at creating alarm among the public. No directive has been issued for the depopulation of Tirah by the federal government and the armed forces,” a post on the ministry’s X account said on Sunday. The ministry further maintained in its statement that law enforcement agencies had been routinely conducting “targeted, intelligence-based operations, strictly against terrorist elements, with full care to avoid disruption to civilian life, for which no migration is needed or being undertaken”. “It may be no... -
Dawn - 18:31 Jan 25, 2026
More than 850,000 customers in the US, as far west as New Mexico, were without electricity and over 10,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday during a monster winter storm that paralysed eastern and southern states with heavy snow and ice. As snow, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures swept into the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday, the number of power outages continued to rise. As of 10:47am EST (8:47pm PKT) on Sunday, more than 850,000 US customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with at least 290,000 in Tennessee and over 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama. More than 10,200 US flights scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Over 4,000 flights were cancelled on Saturday. Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport said airlines had cancelled all flights at the airport on Sunday. Delta Air Lines on Sunday said that it intended to ... -
Dawn - 18:12 Jan 25, 2026
As the cold wave is likely to persist across the province, the Sindh Government has decided to extend the revised school-opening timings across the province for the next 10 days, said a notification on Sunday seen by Dawn. On January 11, as the cold wave gripped the province, the education minister announced to revise school opening timings for two weeks, ending today (Sunday). The schools were directed to open at 9am instead of the earlier timings. According to a notification, “The timings for all public and private educational institutions under the administrative control of the School Education and Literacy Department shall continue till February 4.” As per the directives, the schools across Sindh will continue to open at 9am till the 4th of next month. Last week, the Education Deparment had issued warning letters to several schools for “completely ignoring” the government’s directives regarding the new school timings. An Education Department official also warned that all private schools were obliged to fo... -
Dawn - 16:57 Jan 25, 2026
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned against road closures and landslides from January 26 to 27 in the country’s upper parts due to heavy snowfall, advising citizens to remain “extra cautious”. In a statement, the Met Office said that in the next couple of days, “heavy snowfall may cause road closure/slippery conditions in Naran, Kaghan, Dir, Swat, Kalam, Chitral, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Shangla, Astore, Hunza, Skardu, Murree, Galliyat, Neelum valley, Bagh, Poonch, Haveli, Quetta, Ziarat, Chaman, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Qila Saifullah, Nushki, Harnai and Zhob.” It further cautioned that there was a “possibility of landslides/avalanches in hilly areas of upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir” during the period. The PMD advised tourists to “remain extra cautious and avoid unnecessary travel during the next two days.” Heavy snowfall, avalanches and landslides have brought life to a standstill across KP, Balochistan, GB and Azad Kashmir (AJK), blocking roads, stranding t...
7934 items