Daily News Pakistan

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced on Saturday that he will not engage in discussions with Pakistan during his forthcoming visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave. “It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I’m not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO,” he said at the sidelines of an event in the national capital. “But, you know, since I’m a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” he added. “At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason - there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more… Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbours continues to do it - there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That’s the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years -

A major solar storm is barreling its way towards the Earth for the second time in five months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned earlier this week. Experts at the United States-based scientific and regulatory agency have warned that this solar storm will be a strong "G3-class geomagnetic storm" — the third most powerful category after the G4 and G5. Geomagnetic storms are caused by explosions on the sun's surface, such as solar flares, which can, in turn, send huge amounts of plasma shooting off into space, ultimately striking our planet's atmosphere, Gizmodo reported. According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the strong solar storm could hit Earth on Friday, likely impacting navigation systems, power grids and even satellite communications. However, on the bright side, it could bring back those spectacular auroras many witnessed earlier this year. The NOAA's warning comes after a strong solar explosion occurre

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will visit Pakistan to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit later this month, the Indian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. “The external affairs minister will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO Summit which will be held on October 15 and 16,” Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly press briefing. The visit will be the first by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nearly a decade. Earlier, the Foreign Office (FO) had confirmed that Prime Minister Modi has been invited to the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, which Pakistan is hosting on Oct 15-16, under its rotating chairmanship. FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had said, “An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi,” adding that some countries had already confirmed their participation in the meeting. Meanwhile, a comprehensive security plan for the upcoming SCO summit was appr­

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is delivering a speech at the commemoration ceremony of the late Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Imam Khomeini’s Grand Mosalla in Tehran. In his Friday Prayer sermons, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized the importance of Muslim unity, stating that if Muslims come together, they can overcome their enemies. He stressed that the enemy of the Iranian nation is also the enemy of the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Egyptian nations, emphasizing that their enemy is the same. Referring to the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, Ayatollah Khamenei called it a legal and international move and affirming the Palestinians' rightness in their actions. He condemned the crimes committed by the Israeli regime and asserted that every nation has the right to defend its country and territory against aggressors. Furthermore, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the recent anti-Israeli operation by the country’s armed forces, describing it as a legal

Meta-owned messaging application WhatsApp is rolling out a redesigned typing indicator for individual and group chats, and its accessible for some beta testers. Earlier, when a user was typing in a chat, the typing indicator used to appear at the top of the screen in the application bar under the group name highlighting who was typing, reported WABetaInfo. However, with the launch of this new update, the typing indicator will now appear right in the conversation screen in the form of a chat bubble. As a result, this makes it faster and convenient for users to identify who is typing without taking their focus from the ongoing conversation. Notably, this update also applies to the voice recording indicator. This now appears within the chat interface in a similar manner giving a consistent experience for both typing and recording activities. The new typing indicator also appears in individual chats. By integrating with the chat screen, it maintains a consistent experience. Moreover

US President Joe Biden said he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, in comments that sent oil prices spiking on Thursday just a month before the US presidential election. Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran’s missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least. When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, Biden said, “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little … anyway.” Oil prices jumped five per cent over concerns about the Middle East after Biden spoke. A rise in oil prices could be hugely damaging for Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue. Biden said he did not expect any immediate action from Israel — even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid little heed to calls

Amazon plans to hire 250,000 transportation and warehouse workers this holiday shopping season, the same number as last year as e-commerce spending is expected to outpace overall holiday sales in the final quarter of 2024, the company said on Thursday. "Although there is an anticipated increase in the demand and the volume, we feel like the 250,000 is the right number to continue to grow and advance with our operations," said Sandy Gordon, vice president of Global Operations Employee Experience at Amazon. It was unclear what percentage of the 250,000 seasonal workers, which include staff in sort centers, fulfillment centers and delivery stations, would be in fulfillment centers or transport employees. The transport employees will not include delivery service partners or their teams, according to a company spokesperson. Online holiday shoppers are expected to spend a record $240.8 billion, up 4.9% from last year. Broader holiday spending is expected to rise modestly at 3.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday received the Right Livelihood Award for his organization's work. The Youth Against Settlements (YAS) group was awarded the prize for its "steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel's illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means." Founded by Amro, YAS campaigns against the proliferation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which the international community widely considers illegal. Amro was born in Hebron, where some 1,000 Jewish settlers live under Israeli military protection amid 200,000 Palestinians. The Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation said the 44-year-old activist was detained several times by both Israel. "It's a miracle that I still exist," said Amro. Around 475,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, which the UN deems illegal under international law. Settlements built witho

Survivors of the monsoon floods that ravaged Nepal over the weekend criticised the government on Tuesday for inadequate relief efforts during a disaster that killed at least 218 people. Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse. Entire neighbourhoods in the capital Kathmandu were inundated at the weekend, along with villages in remote pockets of the Himalayan country that were still awaiting relief efforts. “There is no road, so no one has come,” Mira KC, who lives in a village in Kavre district to Kathmandu’s east, told AFP. “Even if they do, those who died are dead already and the damage is done. All they will do is offer condolences, what will they do?” The floods disproportionately hit Kathmandu’s poorest residents living in haphazard slums along the banks of the Bagmati river and its tributaries, which run through the city. Slum resident Man Kumar Rana Magar

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday said that he was freed after years of incarceration because he “pled guilty to journalism.” Addressing the European Parliament committee on his detention and conviction, Assange said: "The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.” “Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society," he added. According to him, the CIA “drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and authorized going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks and the planting of false information.” “My wife and my infant son were also targeted,” he said, adding that instructions were given to “obtain DNA” from his “6-month-old son’s nappy.” Assange emphasized how “aggressive” the CIA acted at that time against him. “This assembly is no stranger to the extraterritorial abuses by the CIA,” he stressed, pointing to “secret de