Pakistan

The Gates Foundation said on Tuesday it will commit $1.6 billion over the next five years to support Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps buy vaccines for the world’s poorest children. The number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year because of the massive cuts to foreign aid, foundation chair Bill Gates said in a statement, adding that funding Gavi was the single most powerful step to stop it. “The legacy of our generation cannot be that we looked away as millions of poor children died of preventable causes,” said Gates. “The world now has affordable, effective, proven tools that save lives. Wealthy nations should fully fund Gavi and the Global Fund, the organisations created to get those products to the people who need them.” The vaccine alliance is looking to raise $9bn for its work from 2026 to 2030 at a pledging event to be held in Brussels on Wednesday. It is co-hosted by the European Union and the Gates Foundation. The Trump administration had previously indicated that it ...

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday killed at least nine people, damaged civilian infrastructure and wounded dozens of train passengers, officials said. The two-wave strike killed seven in the regional capital of Dnipro, said governor Serhiy Lysak, where the blast wave also shattered train carriage windows and showered passengers with broken glass. Nearly 70 people, including 10 children, were injured, he said, adding the numbers could still rise. Two people were also killed in the town of Samar, around 10 kilometres from Dnipro, the state emergencies service said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on Kyiv’s Western partners to respond to the attack. Nato leaders are currently in The Hague for an alliance summit, where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hopes to secure more military support against Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. “It is a matter of credibility for allies to step up pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha wrote on X. He added that sc...

A tragic road accident on Quetta’s Western Bypass claimed six lives after a passenger bus was engulfed in flames, leaving ten others injured.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum on Population, Senator Sherry Rehman, delivered a compelling call to action at the 13th meeting of the Forum titled “From Consensus to Action: Leveraging Parliamentary Support to Achieve Sustainable Population Growth.

A devastating forest fire that erupted on June 15 continues to rage uncontrollably in the Hudur village and Thor Valley regions of Chilas, located in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad has extended pre-arrest bail for several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders until July 22, barring police from arresting them in the meantime.

Rights organisation Amnesty International on Tuesday criticised Pakistani authorities for “failing to protect the lives and property of civilians” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid a surge in suspected quadcopter and drone attacks. The statement came in response to reports of multiple such attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan over the past year. In March, at least 11 people were killed in Mardan in what locals insisted was a drone strike, while in May, a suspected quadcopter munitions drop claimed the lives of four children and injured five others in North Waziristan District’s Mir Ali tehsil. The military clarified that security forces were “falsely implicated” in the incident and that it was carried out by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Last Friday, a child was killed and five others were injured after a suspected drone hit South Waziristan District, prompting condemnations from KP politicians. “Pakistani authorities have failed to take action to protect the lives and property of civilians i...

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) climbed by 5759.16 points after an earlier halt in trading on Tuesday, in the wake of US President Donald Trump announcing a complete ceasefire between Israel and Iran to end a 12-day war. The KSE-100 index climbed by 6079.16 points, or 5.23 per cent, to close at 122,246.63 points. Earlier in the day, shares at the PSX had climbed by 5,878 points a few hours after it opened. It reached an earlier intraday high of 122,045.62 from the last close of 116,167.47 yesterday, before a market halt was initiated. Yousuf M. Farooq, director of research at Chase Securities, attributed the rise to the overnight announcement of a ceasefire, with broad-based gains across sectors. Farooq said, “The Pakistan market rallied earlier today following the overnight announcement of a ceasefire. “However, reports during the day of Israeli claims that Iran has violated the ceasefire dampened sentiment, pulling the market down from an intraday high of 122,045.62 to 121,926.63 currently. Desp...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to continue working closely with China for successful implementation of ongoing CPEC projects.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will lead Pakistan delegation to the twelfth session of Pakistan-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission scheduled in Abu Dhabi today.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed bail petitions filed by former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan in eight separate cases linked to the May 9, 2023, unrest.

Iraq will investigate suicide drone attacks on radar systems at two military bases, Sabah al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said on Tuesday, adding that Iraqi forces intercepted several other attempted incursions. “Several small suicide drones targeted multiple Iraqi military sites and bases,” according to the spokesman. No casualties were reported. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the government has not yet identified any perpetrators. Numan described the attacks as “cowardly and treacherous”. “The assault severely damaged radar systems at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, and Imam Ali Base in Dhi Qar Province” in southern Iraq, he added. Iraqi forces also thwarted other attacks against “four additional sites across various locations”, Numan said, adding that the drones were downed “before they could reach their intended targets”. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered the formation of “a high-level” committee to investigate the attacks and identify the p...

Following the formal ceasefire between Iran and Israel and calmer conditions in the Persian Gulf, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reinstated flights to Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Dubai.

Justice (Retired) Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has emphasized that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is not a federal entity and should appoint judges from within the Islamabad region.

Ambassador of China to Pakistan, Jiang Zaidong, met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday and praised Pakistan’s active and constructive role at global diplomatic platforms, including the United Nations Security Council, in promoting peaceful regional solutions through dialogue and diplomacy.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has issued a show cause notice to K-Electric (KE) after the power distribution company failed to submit a satisfactory reply over discriminatory policies over loadshedding in Karachi. Nepra had earlier taken serious notice of alleged excessive and persistent loadshedding during summers, and directed KE to end consumers’ miseries. In a letter to the KE chief executive officer, the regulatory body stated that it had received a large number of complaints regarding persistent and excessive loadshedding across various areas of Karachi. In a notice issued on June 23, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the power regulatory said the power distribution companies are obligated to supply electricity on a “non-discriminatory” basis to all consumers, and shall have schedules to shed up to 30pc of its load on instructions of the NTDC. When instructed, power distribution companies (Discos) can announce loadshedding in the order namely: supply to rural areas, ...

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, has warned the UN Security Council that terrorism originating from Afghanistan poses a direct threat to Pakistan’s national security, particularly from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has a presence of around 6,000 fighters near the.

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Indian spin great Dilip Doshi has died aged 77, with former cricketers praising a man they said had been a “gentleman to the core”. Doshi died in London on Monday, Indian media reported. The left-arm spinner was already in his thirties when he made his Test debut in 1979, and finished with 114 wickets in 33 matches. Doshi also played 15 one-day internationals for India between 1980 and 1982. Cricket veteran Sachin Tendulkar said Doshi was a “warm-hearted soul”, adding that he “will miss those cricketing conversations”. Former all-rounder Ravi Shastri said that Doshi was “a gentleman to the core and a fine, fine bowler”. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also paid tribute to the former spinner. A bespectacled Doshi carried forward the Indian spin legacy started by the famous quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar. Doshi bamboozled world batsmen and played English County cricket, with a long stint with Nottinghamshire.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday it was proposing to designate Google with “strategic market status” to give it greater control over how the United States tech giant operates search services, according to a report by Reuters. According to a press release by the CMA, Britain’s competition regulator, Google search accounts for more than 90 per cent of all general search queries in the UK — with millions of people relying on it as a key gateway to the internet and more than 200,000 businesses in the UK relying on Google search advertising to reach their customers. The CMA said that steps it could take include making it easier for users to access different search providers and ensuring fair ranking principles for businesses appearing on Google search. It also proposed more transparency and control for publishers whose content appeared in search results if it goes ahead with the designation in October. Google will be the first company designated since the regulator gained new power...