Pakistan News

In a dimly lit room illuminated by a pair of red lamps, eight-year-old Zeynep waits to see photographs she has taken, now trapped as shadows and silhouettes on a roll of film. “How big is your curiosity?” asks her mentor, 40-year-old photographer Amar Kilic, as he develops the negatives in a sink. “As big as the world,” she replies. Zeynep, 8-year-old, looks at a camera film during a workshop held as part of Fotohane Darkroom project in Mardin, southeastern Turkiye, on June 13, 2026. — AFP Originally from the southeastern province of Mardin, Zeynep is among eight children taking part in a two-month analogue photography workshop for local and migrant youth near Turkiye’s borders with Iraq and Syria. The project, called Fotohane Darkroom, started in Mardin in 2024, by Kilic and Syrian photographer and educator Serbest Salih. In Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish and Persian, Fotohane means “house of photo”, a name chosen by the children. Child...

Beneath the scorching sun in the Sindh mango belt, labourers balance on tree branches, working at a swift pace to throw the freshly picked fruit into sacks held ready by farmhands waiting below. Though mango season is well underway, far less of the fruit will be bound for the lucrative export market than usual, with an agriculturally dependent economy caught in the crosshairs of the Middle East crisis that the government has helped mediate. An initial deal between the warring sides announced by Islamabad this week has come too late for this mango season, which began in June in Sindh. Mango traders told AFP they expect export sales to fall at least 30 per cent this year due to dampened demand in key markets, including the Gulf, and soaring shipping costs. Adding to the financial pain, local households struggling with a spike in inflation emanating from the regional crisis are holding off on buying the fruit, depressing domestic sales. ...

Japan marked the 1,000th match in World Cup history with a commanding 4-0 win over Tunisia in Group F on Saturday, as Ayase Ueda scored twice to send the North Africans out. Hajime Moriyasu’s side, who drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in their opener, went ahead after four minutes when a sweeping attack ended with Keito Nakamura cutting the ball back for Daichi Kamada to score. Tunisia, beaten 5-1 by Sweden in their first match and playing under new coach Herve Renard, struggled to cope with Japan’s pressing and movement from the outset. Japan almost doubled their advantage in the 11th minute with an attack down the right flank, with Tunisia’s Dylan Bronn turning a low cross away from Kamada. From the resulting corner, Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen produced a fine save, with goal-line technology confirming the ball had not crossed the line. Moriyasu’s team continued to dominate possession, their front line harrying Tunisia’s defence and preventing Renard’s side from establishing an...

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EVER since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021 , the world has turned very bleak for Afghan women. As they did when they first took power in the 1990s, the Taliban immediately set about erasing women from public spaces in Afghanistan. Deploying a self-serving interpretation of religion, they issued edicts requiring women to cover themselves completely in public and be constantly accompanied by a male guardian. In later months, they imposed even more draconian restrictions, make it nearly impossible for women to work outside the home even in desperately needed professions like medicine and teaching. Currently, women can only get primary education. If there is any other freedom left to prohibit, it is a safe bet that they have eliminated it. Banning women from public spaces is strategic for the Taliban. It is easy to crack down on the vulnerable, and women are undoubtedly the least powerful in Afghanistan’s war-torn reality. Imposing veils and other restrictions immediately transfo...

As the sound of Israeli artillery shells echoed around their hilltop homes close to Lebanon, residents of Trump Heights struggled to hide their dismay at the deal to end the war on Iran, but were not giving up on their hero in the White House. Under the US-Iran agreement announced earlier this week to end the Middle East war, fighting is also supposed to cease between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In Israel, the agreement is widely viewed as undermining the country’s security and its acceptance by Washington as a strategic failure for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Trump Heights, a community of small prefabricated homes perched on a hilltop just 15 kilometres from the Lebanon border, the deal with Iran has not proved popular with residents. But for those living in the settlement, named in homage to the US president, the agreement was not cause to completely abandon their community’s namesake. “We give President Trump the benefit of the doubt that he is making the right ...

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to phase out machine-readable passports and switch fully to e-passports, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced on Friday, saying the move will offer advanced security, global compatibility and a seamless airport experience. Chairing a special meeting at the Passport and Immigration Headquarters, Naqvi said the complete transition would eliminate fraud and forgery. “The complete transition to e-passports will end fraud and forgery related to passports,” he said. Director General Passports and Immigration Muhammad Ali Randhawa briefed the minister on the reforms. The meeting approved in principle to shift to e-passports, though no cutoff date for phasing out old passports was set. An e-Passport is a highly secure travel document with an electronic chip embedded in one of its pages. The contactless NFC chip securely stores biometric data, facial details, biographical information, a unique identifi...