Daily News Pakistan

Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions have agreed to a document setting out a plan for their disarmament in Gaza, in what United States President Donald Trump has called “a monumental step” towards peace and security in the Middle East. In a Truth Social post, Trump announced: “Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.” Neither Israel nor the Palestinian group have confirmed the deal. Under the carefully phased framework of the Trump 20-Point Plan, the agreement envisions Hamas surrendering its heavy weapons and dismantling its vast tunnel network, followed by a gradual withdrawal of occupying Israeli forces. In their place, a new International Stabilization Force would partner with a new Palestinian police force to secure the territory, while a technocratic Palestinian government assumes civilian control. The White House cast...

Japanese emergency workers battled Thursday to rescue any remaining survivors from a devastated shopping mall, as the death toll from a major earthquake hit 28 and thousands sweltered in punishing heat. The government issued the new tally as Kumamoto officials said they have now extracted four bodies from the mass of rubble, steel and wires of the Aeon shopping mall after a suspected gas blast following Tuesday's quake. At the mall, "we have pulled out 10 people. Of them, four were confirmed dead. Another is without vital signs. Another five have suffered severe and minor injuries", an official from disaster management office in the southwestern region told AFP. Tuesday's 7.1-magnitude tremor caused widespread damage, flattening homes, damaging bridges, triggering fires and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power and water in temperatures forecast to hit 38C this weekend. Hundreds of elderly people — Japan has the world´s second oldest population — sl...

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued a security advisory urging WhatsApp users to adopt essential safety measures to protect their accounts from hacking and cyber fraud. In a statement on Saturday, the authority warned that cybercriminals continue to target WhatsApp accounts through unauthorised access attempts and advised users to strengthen their account security. PTA recommended enabling Security Notifications by going to “Settings > Account > Security Notifications” and turning on the “Show Security Notifications” option. The feature alerts users whenever there is a change to their account’s security settings. The regulator also advised users to link a secure and active email address to their WhatsApp account, saying it can help with account recovery in case of hacking or other emergencies. In addition, PTA urged users to activate Two-Step Verification, describing it as an important layer of protection that helps prevent unauthorised access by hackers...

Mediators Pakistan and Qatar have intensified the exchange of messages between the US and Iran after the two warring sides communicated their responses to a joint formula to end their months-long war, Pakistani government sources told Anadolu on Sunday. The development came after US President Donald Trump ordered a "pause" in the latest bombing campaign on Iran after two weeks of consecutive nights of strikes, the sources added. Earlier this week, Islamabad and Doha proposed a joint de-escalation formula, urging the US and Iran to return to their pre-July 9 positions "as a first step" to resume stalled talks to permanently end the conflict, according to an official familiar with the matter. Although the sources did not elaborate on details of the responses, they said both sides have communicated their consent for dialogue and diplomacy to end the latest hostilities and return to negotiations. The sources said the pause in strikes from both sides has raised hopes...

The Iran war broadened over the weekend despite a pause in US strikes, as Yemen's Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and Iran accused Ukraine of targeting one of its vessels in the Caspian Sea. The US military said on Saturday its naval blockade against Iran "remains in full effect" but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes. There were also no weekend reports of attacks by Iran on neighbours, similar to its daily rejoinders to the US attacks. Asked about the pause, a senior official in President Donald Trump's administration said Trump "has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way." Trump has decided, for now, to back away from plans to ramp up attacks on Iran, the New York Times said on Saturday, citing two people briefed on the discussion. The president and his advisers, the newspaper sa...

The Trump administration on Friday imposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including Europe and China, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expired. The move is the White House's latest effort to restore President Donald Trump's vision of a near-global tariff after the US Supreme Court in February struck down his "reciprocal" duties of 10% to 50% imposed under a national emergencies law to try to shrink the US trade deficit. New tariffs had been expected, but trade partners around the world joined in strongly disputing the justification for them. Some, however, noted they would make little difference to current levies. There was little early reaction on financial markets more focused on the Middle East conflict. The new tariffs, announced in a Federal Register notice, cover 99.4% of US imports, but include numerous product exemptions, such as oil and gas, fertiliser and cert...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a civil nuclear deal between the US and Saudi Arabia is conditional on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, adding that there would be no enrichment of the material. The US and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement on civil nuclear power, letting the kingdom enrich uranium and build nuclear reactors using US technology, without requiring the snap UN inspections that Washington has previously demanded from Iran. "The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!)... pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to normalising ties with Israel. "The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities," Trump said. Saudi Arabia's longstanding position has been that it wo...