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Shooting on security personnel in Pindi: Minister says PTI leadership cannot 'absolve themselves of responsibility'

Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry on Wednesday said that the PTI could not “absolve themselves of responsibility” after a man was shot dead by law enforcement officials on Rawalpindi’s Mall Road for allegedly open firing on security forces. PTV News, quoting security sources, said the alleged assailant was a resident of Khyber district and an “active PTI member”. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had slammed PTI’s “politics of violence” after state media reported the incident. However, the PTI had distanced itself from the incident, saying it had nothing to do with terrorism and that efforts were being made to link the party to it. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, Chaudhry said, “For years, the PTI leadership has been told not to perpetuate the politics of hatred and anarchy.” He said that the party was told not to influence the youth with “ideas which could not be removed”. “When a young person fills his mind with such hatred and anarchy,...
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Gold rebounds towards 10-week high as markets brace for US inflation data

Gold prices rose on Wednesday, supported by reduced bets on Federal Reserve tightening next month as investors awaited key US inflation data that could reshape policy expectations. Spot gold gained 0.6 per cent to $4,391.82 per ounce by 0535 GMT. US gold futures for December delivery rose 0.2pc to $4,451.90. Bullion climbed to a 10-week high on Tuesday before hitting technical resistance at the 100-day moving average around $4,387 and closing lower for the second time this month. “The primary driver for gold is the reduction in pricing of rate hikes by the Fed,” said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at Oanda. “In terms of technical positioning, we started to see a bullish break late last week above that $4,200 level, which also created a positive momentum feedback loop.” Bullion posted its largest weekly gain since January on Friday after weaker-than-expected jobs data led traders to scale back bets on US rate hikes. Traders are now pricing in a 50pc chance of a hike in Septe...
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Dar condemns Houthi attack in Red Sea after 3 Pakistanis killed, says in contact with Saudi, Yemen authorities

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned on Wednesday the attack by Houthis on a commercial vessel in the Red Sea that claimed the lives of three Pakistanis and said Islamabad was in contact with the relevant authorities to ascertain further details. The attack targeted a Tanzania-flagged vessel Tihamah, causing deaths and injuries among its crew. Apart from three Pakistanis, an Indonesian was also killed in the attack. Dar said in a post on X that he had also received reports of a Pakistani getting injured in the attack. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” he said, adding: “Pakistan strongly condemns the Houthi attack on a non-combatant commercial vessel.” He said, “Such attacks endanger innocent lives, constitute a violation of international law, and pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation, maritime security, and the safety of commercial shipping in the Red Sea.” Follow for m...
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HEC’s new rules on student AI use won't work

The Higher Education Commission has taken two big steps on artificial intelligence. It has notified a compulsory three-credit-hour AI course for every undergraduate and postgraduate degree in the country, starting from Fall 2026. It has also circulated a draft policy on the use of generative AI in our universities. Both steps are welcome. But the rules the draft sets for students rest on two ideas that will not hold. It bans students from submitting AI-generated work as their own, and it asks them to declare which tools they used and why. These are honest instincts. They are also unenforceable. No teacher can verify either one, and the draft admits as much when it rules, correctly, that no student may be punished on the basis of an AI detection report alone. The problem is not that these rules are wrong. It is that they aim at something we cannot see. We keep arguing about what a student may do at home, when the question we can actually answer is what we choose to grade. Start with...
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Bangladesh, India scramble to save white-ball series

Bangladesh is scrambling to save a six-match cricket tour by neighbour India next month, with the foreign ministers of both nations roped in to try to salvage the series. Comprising three one-day internationals and three T20 matches, the white-ball series was originally planned for August last year but postponed after political relations soured between Dhaka and New Delhi. “It is being worked on at the ministerial level,” Bangladesh Sports Minister Aminul Haque said late Monday, adding talks were ongoing between the foreign ministers of both nations. Dhaka and New Delhi have been at odds since Bangladesh’s 2024 mass uprising toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India, her long-time ally, where she remains in hiding. In February, Bangladesh refused to send a team to India for the T20 World Cup, citing security concerns. The International Cricket Council (ICC) refused Bangladesh’s request to play their matches in Sri...
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Afghanistan's gold rush upends lives, landscapes in northeastern Badakhshan province

In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide. Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin. “Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-i-Ziri Ban valley. Since mining got under way, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP . This photograph taken on July 28, 2026 shows an Afghan miner pouring water over a sieve to separate dirt and stones from gold nuggets at Gulak-Dara valley in Shiwa area of Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province. — AFP With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along t...
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'Work is work, it has to be done': Brickmakers in Pakistan scorched by sun above and fire below

As dark plumes billow from overhead smokestacks, brickmakers at a kiln in Sheikhupura district crush coal through small holes beneath their feet into the fiery chambers below. Workers already have to endure extreme conditions at traditional brick kilns, which burn at over 1,000°C and demand constant monitoring to ensure they remain hot enough. But they are becoming almost unbearable as climate change makes summers even hotter in a country already used to temperatures well over 40°C . A man works at a brick kiln in Sheikhupura, Punjab on July 20, 2026. —AFP Abid Hussain, a 35-year-old labourer whose clothes were covered in dark soot, told AFP the work felt like being trapped between fire below and, increasingly, above. He is one of hundreds of thousands working in an industry that labour advocates say is poorly regulated, badly paid and becoming more dangerous as temperatures rise. “The heat is undoubtedly extreme but when you think about the financial ...
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