Daily News Pakistan

A political firestorm has erupted in India after Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan acknowledged that the country lost several fighter jets during its recent military clash with Pakistan. The Congress Party swiftly condemned the revelation, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of “misleading the nation” and calling for an urgent special session of parliament to address what it described as a grave breach of public trust and national accountability. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge led the charge, posting a sharp critique on X (formerly Twitter), saying: “In the wake of the remarks made by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in Singapore in an interview, there are some very important questions which need to be asked." "These can only be asked if a special session of the parliament is immediately convened. The Modi govt has misled the nation. The fog of war is now clearing,” he said. Kharge was responding to General Chauhan’s comments in an ...

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons “unacceptable”, reiterating the country’s longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of Israel. “If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,” Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. “We agree with them on this issue.” Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new nuclear agreement to replace the deal with major powers President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. The two governments are at odds over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Washington has said must cease but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that “we’re h...

Scientists have identified an object about 435 miles (700 kilometres) wide inhabiting the frigid outer reaches of our solar system that might qualify as a dwarf planet, spotting it as it travels on a highly elongated orbital path around the sun. The researchers called it one of the most distant visible objects in our solar system and said its existence indicates that a vast expanse of space beyond the outermost planet Neptune and a region called the Kuiper Belt may not be deserted, as long thought. The Kuiper Belt is populated by numerous icy bodies. Given the name 2017 OF201, the object falls into a category called trans-Neptunian objects that orbit the sun at a distance beyond that of Neptune. The object takes about 25,000 years to complete a single orbit of the sun, compared to 365 days for Earth to do so. The researchers said 2017 OF201 was identified in observations by telescopes in Chile and Hawaii spanning seven years. "It is potentially large enough to qualify as a ...

US President Donald Trump said that representatives from Pakistan are coming to the United States next week as the South Asian country seeks to make a deal on tariffs. Pakistan faces a potential 29% tariff on exports to the United States due to a $3 billion trade surplus with the world's biggest economy, under tariffs announced by Washington last month on countries around the world. Tariffs were subsequently suspended for 90 days so negotiations could take place. Pakistan last month decided to dispatch a high-level delegation to the US for negotiations aimed at enhancing bilateral trade relations and addressing concerns related to newly imposed US tariffs on Pakistani imports. The decision was made on the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a review meeting held in Islamabad on April 9 with the huddle focusing on increasing national exports and discussing the Washington's recent tariff measures. The delegation will include prominent business figures and l...

In a rare and candid admission, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy acknowledged that Pakistan shot down five Indian Air Force jets during the recent conflict. Speaking in an interview, Swamy said that the Indian planes were defeated in air combat as Pakistan deployed Chinese fighter jets which outperformed the French-made aircraft used by New Delhi. “Pakistan downed five of our planes. They used Chinese planes to down our planes, which were French,” Swamy revealed. “The Chinese planes were good, but the French were not. Rafale is not up to the mark as per India’s needs,” he added, criticising the performance of the highly-touted Rafale jets. He went on to make a startling claim regarding the controversial Rafale deal, alleging corruption in the procurement process. “Corruption happened in Rafale which won’t be investigated till Modi is the PM,” he stated firmly. Discussing the lack of accountability within the Indian leadership, Swamy said that under the current prime minister, ...

Without billionaire Elon Musk in the Trump administration, his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency project is likely to sputter out, a former DOGE staffer said in his first interview since leaving the team. Tesla CEO Musk announced on Wednesday evening that he was ending his time as a special government employee but vowed that DOGE would continue without him. Administration media representatives also said in statements to Reuters that DOGE would continue its work. DOGE has overseen job cuts at nearly every federal agency as part of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s attempts to shake up the federal bureaucracy. However, software engineer Sahil Lavingia, who spent almost two months working for the group of pro-Musk technologists, said he expects DOGE to quickly “fizzle out.” “It’ll just die a whimper,” Lavingia, who was fired from DOGE earlier this month, told Reuters. “So much of the appeal and allure was Elon.” He said he expected DOGE staffers to “just stop showing up t...

A Sri Lankan court on Thursday sentenced two former ministers from the government of deposed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to decades in prison in a landmark corruption case. Ex-sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and former trade minister Anil Fernando were found guilty by the Colombo High Court of misappropriating 53 million Sri Lankan rupees ($177,000) of state funds. The pair were also fined $2,000 for using government money to donate board games — including 14,000 carrom boards and 11,000 draughts sets — in an attempt to boost the failed 2015 re-election bid of Gotabaya’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Aluthgamage was sentenced to 20 years in jail. Fernando was sentenced to 25 years. Aluthgamage is now the most senior member of a Rajapaksa-led cabinet to be successfully prosecuted for corruption. The cases against both men were initiated six years ago, when the Rajapaksa brothers were out of power, but the case had been making slow headway until a new government took...

SpaceX’s Starship rocket roared into space from Texas on Tuesday but spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals, bringing fresh engineering hurdles to CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly turbulent Mars rocket programme. The 400-foot tall (122 metre) Starship rocket system, the core of Musk’s goal of sending humans to Mars, lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, launch site, flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course. For the latest launch, the ninth full test mission of Starship since the first attempt in April 2023, the upper-stage cruise vessel was lofted to space atop a previously flown booster — a first such demonstration of the booster’s reusability. But SpaceX lost contact with the 232-foot lower-stage booster during its descent before it plunged into the sea, rather than making th...

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued an urgent warning, cautioning citizens against a rise in phishing scams where fraudsters are attempting to obtain personal information by impersonating the regulatory body. The PTA said that it will never contact individuals via call, email or message to request sensitive personal details such as passwords, One-Time Passwords (OTPs), or online credentials. "Stay cautious — PTA will NEVER ask for your personal details, passwords, or OTPs via call, email, or message. Protect yourself and stay vigilant," the authority stated in its alert. The PTA urged the public to be extremely wary of fake calls, emails, and messages designed to trick them into divulging confidential information. Citizens are advised not to click on suspicious links or share any personal data with unknown parties. To combat these fraudulent activities, the PTA has also provided contact numbers for reporting such incidents: 1. For blocking scam nu...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday escalated his rhetoric against Pakistan, claiming that what were previously viewed as proxy wars now constitute a “well-thought-out strategy” by Islamabad, and warning that India would respond “accordingly” if faced with acts of war. Addressing a ceremony in Gandhinagar, Indian Gujarat, Modi invoked a nationalist narrative rooted in historical grievances, vowing a forceful response to what he described as calculated acts of aggression from across the border. “We can’t call this a proxy war as those who were killed after May 6 were given state honours in Pakistan. Pakistani flags were draped over their coffins, and their military saluted them. This proves that these terrorist activities are not just a proxy war — this is a deliberate war strategy on their part”, Modi said. Citing Operation Sindoor, Modi claimed that nine identified terrorist bases were destroyed in 22 minutes with full camera documentation. Modi linked current tension...

The United Nations warned on Wednesday there is a 70% chance that average warming from 2025 to 2029 will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius international benchmark. The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to an annual climate report published by the World Meteorological Organisation, the UN’s weather and climate agency. "We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record," said the WMO’s deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett. "Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet." The 2015 Paris climate accords aimed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels — and to 1.5°C if possible. The targets are calculated relative to the 1850-1900 average, before humanity began industrially...

Pakistan’s National Cyber Emergency Response Team (NCERT) has urged citizens to change their social media passwords after a major global data leak exposed 184 million unique account credentials. In an advisory issued on Monday, the body said that the breach exposed usernames, passwords, emails, and associated URLs tied to services from Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, as well as government portals, banking institutions, and healthcare platforms worldwide. The leaked database is believed to have been compiled using infostealer malware — malicious software that extracts sensitive information from compromised systems. This data, the advisory mentioned, was stored in plain text and left completely unprotected, with no encryption or password safeguarding. The body said that immediate action is recommended to mitigate associated risks and to secure systems potentially impacted by this breach. Breach's impact: Successful exploitation of the leaked credentia...

In a major step toward positioning Pakistan as a global digital innovation hub, the government has allocated 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the initial phase of a national plan to support Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. According to a statement issued by the Finance Division, the initiative is spearheaded by the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) — a government-backed body under the Ministry of Finance — as part of a broader strategy to monetise surplus electricity, create high-tech jobs, attract billions of dollars in foreign direct investment, and generate billions of dollars for government. "Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that this strategic allocation marks a pivotal moment in Pakistan’s digital transformation journey, unlocking economic potential by turning excess energy into innovation, investment, and international revenue," read the statement. Pakistan, a country that ranked 3rd in the Global Crypto Adoption Index, has 2...

Chinese Premier Li Qiang reaffirmed Beijing’s ties with Jakarta on Sunday during his visit to Indonesia ahead of a regional summit in Kuala Lumpur. Beijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies pouring capital into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years, particularly in the nickel sector. But the two countries’ disputed claims into the strategic waterways of the South China Sea and its nearby territories have weighed on their relationship in recent years. In a meeting with Indonesian Presi­dent Prabowo Subianto on Sunday, Li said Beijing was keen to advance cooperation with Indonesia. “China is willing to work together with Indonesia... to carry forward our tradition of friendship, and to strengthen solidarity and cooperation,” Li said. Prabowo also echoed Indonesia’s “close and good” friendship with China. “Indonesia is ready to create a safe and prosperous region. Indonesia is ready to strengthen cooperation with China for us to create a ...

The Met Police said a 41-year-old man was arrested outside the properties on suspicion of murder and remains in custody, as a mother and her three children have been killed in a house fire in Brent, north-west London. The emergency services were called at about 01:20 on Saturday to the blaze in Tillett Close, Stonebridge, where they found the victims — a 43-year-old woman, a 15-year-old girl and two boys aged eight and four, reported BBC. Two terraced three-storey homes were gutted in the fire. The Met Police said that another woman in her 70s and a teenage girl, both from the same family as the four people who died, were taken to the hospital. Their conditions have not been disclosed. "Devastated to see the fatal fire at homes in Tillet Close last night," Dawn Butler, the local MP for Brent East, said in a social media post. She added her "prayers are with the family and friends affected" by this "very sad tragedy". Supt Steve Allen said in a state...

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has confirmed the global outage and disruption, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is experiencing, which has upset users in Pakistan and several other countries. PTA indicated that the issue is not associated with any technical faults within Pakistan’s internet infrastructure. According to PTA, X’s global outage has caused problems for global users, with reports of service disruptions rising from various regions. Independent internet monitoring organisation ‘NetBlocks’ has also confirmed that the X’s global outage is not linked with specific restrictions of any country, and is international in nature. This is the second time such a disruption has occurred in recent months. Earlier, X services were affected, causing difficulties for users. Two months ago, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) submitted a report to the Sindh High Court about the temporary ban on X (formerly Twitter) in Pakistan, saying it was due to ...

Oil prices gained as US buyers covered positions ahead of the three-day Memorial Day weekend amid worries over the latest round of nuclear talks between American and Iranian negotiators. Brent crude futures settled at $64.78 a barrel, up 34 cents, or 0.54%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures finished at $61.53, up 33 cents, or 0.54%. “I think there is some short-covering going into this weekend,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. The Memorial Day weekend kicks off the US summer driving season, the period of highest demand for motor fuels. U.S. and Iranian negotiators met in Rome on Friday in another round of talks aimed at curtailing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Traders are afraid crude supplies could be interrupted if talks fail to reach a deal, Flynn said. “The talks are not looking good,” he said. “If these are the last talks and there’s no deal, it could give a green light to the Israelis to attack Iran.” President Donald Trump sai...

Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is facing a mass outage affecting multiple countries, including Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) confirmed on Saturday. "This disruption follows a similar global outage faced by the platform on Thursday, May 22, which lasted for several hours before being resolved by the platform itself, the authority said in a statement.. "The PTA’s investigation into the matter has confirmed that there are no technical issues at Pakistan’s internet gateways. All other internet services across the country remain fully functional, the PTA added. It further said that global internet observatory NetBlocks also confirmed that the outages being experienced by ‘X’ are international and not related to any country-level internet disruptions or filtering. "PTA continues to monitor the situation and will keep the public informed of any significant updates," the telecom regulator said. Meanwhile...

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened once again on Friday to ramp up his trade war, recommending a 50% tariff on European Union goods starting June 1 and warning Apple he may impose a 25% tariff on any iPhones manufactured outside the U.S. The twin threats, delivered via social media, roiled global markets after weeks of de-escalation had provided some reprieve. The S&P 500 fell 0.9% in early trading, the Nasdaq fell 1.5%, and European shares fell 1.1%. Trump’s latest broadside against the EU stemmed from his frustration at the lack of progress in trade talks with the bloc. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Friday that the 50% threat will hopefully “light a fire under the EU,” adding that other countries have been negotiating with Washington in good faith. “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “Our discus...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission dropped a case that sought to block Microsoft’s (MSFT.O), $69 billion purchase of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard, saying on Thursday that pursuing the case against the long-closed deal was not in the public interest. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson is seeking to use the agency’s resources for cases that fit with President Donald Trump’s agenda, such as a probe related to whether advertisers colluded to spend less on X first. Ferguson is beginning to shut down some efforts started by his predecessor Lina Khan, including dropping a case on Thursday that had accused PepsiCo (PEP.O), of price discrimination that favored Walmart (WMT.N). The FTC lost an appeal on May 7 seeking to reverse a judge’s decision declining to block the Microsoft-Activision deal, which closed in 2023. Microsoft President Brad Smith said on Thursday that the FTC’s decision to drop the case was “a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington,...

Pakistan Railways has announced the operation of five special trains on the occasion of Eidul Adha 2025 to facilitate passengers traveling to various cities. According to the railway spokesperson, the special Eidul Fitr trains will run between June 2 and 4 from multiple stations across the Pakistan. The schedule released by PR stated that the first special train will depart from Karachi Cantt to Lahore at 1:00 PM on June 2. The second train will depart from Quetta for Peshawar Cantt at 10:00 AM on June 3. The third train will leave Lahore for Karachi Cantt at 5:00 PM on June 3. The fourth train will depart from Karachi City for Rawalpindi at 8:00 PM on June 3. The fifth special train will depart from Karachi Cantt for Lahore at 8:00 PM on June 4. The spokesperson added that coaches for the first, second, and fourth trains will be arranged from carriage workshops, while the third and fifth trains will utilize existing rakes already prepared for Eid special services. Eidul Adha, ...

US President Donald Trump has announced new details and initial funding for his "Golden Dome" global anti-missile system, with geopolitical rival China accusing Washington on Wednesday of undermining global stability. Trump on Tuesday announced $25 billion earmarked for the project, which he said could eventually cost a total of around $175 billion and would be operational in about three years. Beijing hit back Wednesday, denouncing the Golden Dome as a threat to international security and accusing the United States of fueling an arms race. "In the campaign, I promised the American people I would build a cutting-edge missile defence shield," Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. "Today I am pleased to announce we have officially selected architecture for this state-of-the-art system." "Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are...

In a bold step set to redefine the architecture of global dispute resolution, China is preparing to unveil a pioneering international organization solely dedicated to mediation. On May 30, 2025, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will participate in the official signing ceremony of the newly formed International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), to be held in Hong Kong. This new intergovernmental institution will be the first of its kind — designed to provide an alternative, non-adversarial path for resolving state-level, investor-related, and commercial disputes. The move signals Beijing’s broader ambition to champion dialogue-based conflict resolution on the world stage. A Long-Term Vision Comes to Fruition The IOMed is the product of years of quiet diplomacy and collaboration, first initiated in 2022 by China alongside nearly 20 other countries. Now, the effort is gaining substantial momentum, with roughly 60 nations and 20 international organizations — including prominent UN b...