Brazil has elected leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President after he beat far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in a tight presidential election on Sunday.
Following the election, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif extended his wishes to Silva.
“I extend my congratulations to H.E. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election as President of Brazil. I wish him great success and look forward to working with him to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries. We share consensus on the dangers of climate change,” he said in a tweet.
I extend my congratulations to H.E. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva @LulaOficial on his election as President of Brazil. I wish him great success & look forward to working with him to enhance bilateral relations b/wour two countries. We share consensus on the dangers of climate change.
According to the country’s election authority, Lula secured 50.8 per cent of the vote compared with 49.2 per cent for Bolsonaro.
In his victory speech, Lula said, “This country needs peace and unity. This population doesn’t want to fight anymore.”
This is the first time that the sitting president failed to re-win the elections.
Bolsonaro has made no public statement on the outcome.
Lula, a hero for the country’s left, could not run in the 2018 election after being incarcerated on corruption charges which were later annulled.
Lula left the presidency 12 years ago with record popularity after serving from 2003-2010. His conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court, allowing him to run again for president this year.
Sadaf Naeem, a reporter with Channel Five, died on Sunday in an unfortunate accident near Sadhoke while reporting on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march.
The late reporter’s husband has decided not to pursue “any kind of legal action”, according to a statement submitted to the police on Sunday night.
“When the long march […] started to move gradually, my wife — who was standing on the divider — fell and was trapped beneath the container and died on the spot,” her husband stated.
“This was an accident,” he added, further saying that he did not want to take any legal action, “nor do I want to get a postmortem examination conducted”.
اس درخواست کےمطابق شہید صدف نعیم کے شوہر نے اپنی اہلیہ کی وفات کو حادثہ قرار دیتے ہوئے کسی بھی قسم کی قانونی کاروائی اور پوسٹ مارٹم کی اجازت دینے سے انکار کیا ہے۔ شہید صدف کی فیملی کے فیصلے کا احترام کیا جانا چاہیے۔ اللّہ شہید صدف پر رحمت فرمائیں اور انکی فیملی کو صبر عطا کرے۔ pic.twitter.com/kd6CSwmDQd
He requested that “The dead body be handed over to us immediately so that the burial can be done in a timely manner.”
However, Railway Minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique, shared a video purportedly showing Naeem’s husband signing his statement in the presence of PTI leaders including Aslam Iqbal.
Rafique alleged that the deceased reporter’s husband was “surrounded” by PTI members to make him sign the statement.
یہ ہے دو نہیں ایک پاکستان کے نعرے کی اصلیت : شہید ہونے والی رپورٹر کے خاوندسےکیسے گھیرا ڈالکر سائن کروائے جا رہے کہ میں کوئ قانونی کاروائی نہیں کرنا چاھتا کوئ شرم نہ حیأ pic.twitter.com/vtg2dKDCQS
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Naeem’s fellow journalists were alleging that she was “pushed”.
جاں بحق خاتون رپورٹر کے ساتھی صحافیوں کا بیان ہے کہ صدف کو دھکا دیا گیا، دھکا دینے والے شخص کو گرفتار کیا جائے، قانون کے تقاضے پورے کئے جائیں؛ اس شہادتی بیان کے بعد ضروری ہے کہ واقعے کی تحقیقات ہوں۔
He called for the “person who pushed her” to be arrested as “after this witness account, it was necessary that investigations of the incident are carried out.”
After strengthening against the US dollar on Monday, the Pakistani rupee started the new week positively.
Discussions between Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) employees and currency traders had positive effects as the local currency increased by Rs1.59, or 0.72 per cent, versus the dollar.
In the interbank market, the rupee was able to settle at Rs220.89, according to the SBP.
The rupee last week dropped 0.93 per cent versus the dollar, trading at Rs222.47. Analysts predicted that this week will see range-bound trading in the local currency.
Earlier, Ishaq Dar issued a warning last week saying that anyone detected manipulating the currency rate will face harsh punishment.
Dar said that the rupee’s true worth in relation to the dollar is less than Rs200. He predicted that the rupee will soon strengthen against the dollar and gave a warning to those who were speculating in and hoarding foreign cash.
Furthermore, the price of Brent oil fell by 0.65 per cent to $95.15 per barrel on Monday, while the price of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell by 0.83 per cent to $87.17 per barrel. With advances of 7.7 per cent and 9.3 per cent so far in October, respectively, Brent and WTI are on course to post their first monthly gains since May.
Europe, which is anticipated to experience a recession this winter, poses a threat to global oil consumption. The European Central Bank’s policymakers are also continuing with their plans to raise interest rates, despite the fact that doing so might plunge the region into recession and stoke political unrest.
A retired Indian Army Major, Gaurav Arya, has posted a tweet on his account, offering support to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for his anti-establishment narrative.
Talking to Twitter, Major Gaurav, infamous for being very critical of Pakistan, applauded Khan for speaking against the country’s army, the prime minister, as well as the country’s intelligence agency.
“He calls Pak Army Chief an animal, Pak PM a thief, people of Pakistan slaves (ghulam) and Election Commissioner a traitor. He publicly threatens to expose ISI”, he said. He also expressed his wish to donate to PTI with the hashtag of ImranKhanZindabad.
He calls Pak Army Chief an animal, Pak PM a thief, people of Pakistan slaves (ghulam) & Election Commissioner a traitor. He publicly threatens to expose ISI.
A few days ago, the PTI chief directly addressed Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum.
“DG ISI, listen carefully, the things I know…I am staying silent for my institutions and the country. I don’t want to damage my country,” Khan publicly said during the first day of his party’s ongoing long march.
This is not a first time that someone from across border lauded Khan. Since the former Prime Minister’s outburst against the establishment, an Indian journalist has also said that Imran Khan Khan is her favourite.
ABP News’ journalist Rubika Liyaquat said: “[Imran Khan] has become my dear most as he has his eyes set on exposing ISI’s secrets.”
Indian TV anchor says ex-PM Imran Khan now “dear most” to her as he has taken on the task to “expose” the ISI pic.twitter.com/l9FulkAUFU
Before the commencement of the winter tourism season in Murree and nearby galiyaat in the coming month, a comprehensive tourist programme has been approved to guarantee the safety of visiting families, reports Express Tribune.
Under the programme, arrangements have been made for security, checking of vehicles and 24-hour clearing of snow in the district where standard “Tourism Services Rules” will also be regulated.
During the snowy season, traffic police will not permit more than the designated number of vehicles to enter Murree and beyond, 17 miles of the Toll Plaza, no vehicle will be permitted to enter the district regardless of the number that the district administration and traffic police officers may decide.
There are 215 small and large hotels in Murree overall, according to the report of the Rawalpindi deputy commissioner, and over 150 locals rent out their homes and common places. According to the tourism standard policy, there are a total of 24,239 tourist rooms available in hotels and guesthouses in Murree.
Additionally, a uniformed civil defence force will be stationed in Murree to safeguard visitors from confrontations throughout the winter months.
The local youth-led civil defence team will also be equipped with walkie-talkies and batons. The members of this force will be spread out in the city’s major markets in various shifts. 15 volunteers from civil defence will make up the force.
A total of 50 more traffic wardens will be dispatched to Murree to manage the city’s traffic for the entire season. Rent for both heated and non heated hotel rooms will be pre-set. The additional deputy commissioner for Murree will keep an eye on hotel rents during the peak season.
Food prices will be fixed in markets, and there will be distinct prices for each sort of entertainment. These prices and fees will be prominently displayed on banners with large prints.
The installation of a price list will be required at all venues for entertainment, including lodging and food stands.
Earlier this year in January, a traffic jam in Murree turned deadly after 23 people, including children, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning as they waited in their cars with engines running.
Ayaz Sadiq, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader and incumbent federal minister for Economic Affairs, has been appointed as the new Federal Minister of Law and Justice.
In an official allocation notice, it is stated, “In terms of rule 3(4) of the Rules of Business, 1973, the Prime Minister has been pleased to allocate the portfolio of Law and Justice to Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the federal Minister for Economic Affairs, with immediate effect.”
PM Shehbaz Sharif has allocated the portfolio of Law Minister to Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. pic.twitter.com/815aP5W7IF
The development has come a week after the unexpected and dramatic resignation of Azam Nazeer Tarar as the law minister.
Sadiq began his career with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and joined PML-N in 2001. He has been elected twice for the slot of National Assembly (NA) speaker. He was also the acting President of Pakistan in 2014.
Azam Nazeer Tarar steps down as law minister, citing ‘personal reason’
On October 24, Federal Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar resigned from his post for “personal reasons”.
In his resignation letter, addressed to President Dr Arif Alvi, Tarar wrote: “I have had the great honour and privilege to serve my country as the Federal Minister for Law and Justice under the leadership of Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
Citing the reason for his resignation, the PML-N leader said, “Due to personal reasons, I am unable to discharge my duties as the federal minister”.
“Therefore, in terms of Clause (3) of Article 92 of the Constitution of the Republic of Pakistan, I hereby resign from my office,” his resignation letter added.
Prior to this, Tarar supported Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial’s nominations of junior judges for elevation to the Supreme Court on the instructions of the federal government.
However, it was being speculated that he was not comfortable with the government’s decision, therefore, he decided to tender his resignation, reports Express Tribune.
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Ahsan Bhoon welcomed Tarar’s resignation. He said that Tarar showed loyalty to the party by following the government’s instruction, but he stood with the bar by resigning.
Moreover, some media reports said that some powerful circles were upset at the sloganeering during the Asma Jahangir Conference the other day, in his presence. This resignation is seen in the context of that episode.
Tarar is a senior PML-N leader, a lawyer, and a bar representative who assumed the responsibilities of Federal Minister for Law and Justice in April 2022.
Former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, has addressed the establishment to state that the people of Pakistan are not animals. “Stop considering us cows and buffalos,” he said while addressing the participants of his long march.
Referring to the former President and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Pervez Musharraf, the former Premier said that he was holding meetings with the then-opposition parties. “Now you have dry cleaned them and imposed them on our heads. There were times you used to call them [coalition government] thieves and corrupt. Now you say they aren’t. For God’s sake … Stop considering us cows and buffalos,” he stressed.
In his message to “those with power”, Khan said a country’s “establishment never stands against the nation”.
Referring to his win in recent by-polls, he added, “See where the nation is standing. The country’s establishment never stands against the nation because they strengthen the country together.”
He emphasized that the country would strengthen when its institution would strengthen. “And institutions strengthen when the nation stands by it,” he said.
Addressing his criticism of the army, he said he that he criticised them as “a Pakistani who lives in and would die in Pakistan”.
The PTI chief once again questioned the authority of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling him powerless.
He also said that those who make decisions behind closed doors do not treat the people like animals. They are not sheep that once you say they are clean that “they” will follow them, he added.
This week, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an ultraviolet image of the sun with three black spots that resemble a smiling face. This face may be a harbinger of a solar storm that might cause issues for Earth.
A small geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for Saturday by the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While geomagnetic storms may produce stunning auroras in the sky, they can also interfere with GPS and cause dangerous currents to flow through the electricity system and pipelines.
The coronal holes, which are black patches, are places where solar wind escapes into space more rapidly and readily, keeping those places colder. According to the Exploratorium, a museum in San Francisco, these winds may reach speeds of up to 1.8 million miles per hour.
People took advantage of the chance to create memes and change the smiling sun to resemble a pumpkin or the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbusters series.
In 2014, NASA acquired pictures of the sun that similarly resembled jack-o-lanterns and gave them the name “Pumpkin Sun.” The sun’s active regions, which are what made up the jack-o-face, lantern’s indicate magnetic field disruptions that give rise to solar storms like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
Solar physicists employ telescopes that can picture the sun in the extreme ultraviolet spectrum because the human eye cannot see some wavelengths of sunlight. SDO highlights a specific region of the sun’s atmosphere using 13 different light wavelengths.
“Ultraviolet light from the sun can show us the origins of solar storms that can lead to power outages, cell phone disruptions, and delays in shipping packages due to the rerouting of planes from over the pole,” Joseph Gurman, a researcher at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Solar Data Analysis Center said.
“Wednesday’s image was taken at 193 angstrom light, giving it the yellow, light orange hue. The 2014 image was taken at a blend of 171 and 193 angstrom light, colorizing the sun in gold and yellow “to create a Halloween-like appearance,” according to NASA.
Shockingly, both pictures were taken in October, just in time for Halloween.
Model-turned-actor Saheefa Jabbar Khattak has addressed the speculation regarding her separation from her husband Khawaja Khizer on Instagram.
On Saturday, she shared a photo of the couple in an embrace and wrote, “Alhamdulillah, things are greater than ever, it’s just [that] we choose to keep our relationship very private. He has gone to Canada for his studies and I am in Pakistan waiting for my visa to come long distance isn’t bothering us much.”
She explained how they have been dealing with the situation, adding that she is not getting his tattoo removed. “Since so many of you asked as well, we have always been pretty mature with our relationship, our collective goals are so big that we don’t mind the long distance. Yes, we have our lows but he has found some great classmates who helps him with his anxiety and in Pakistan, I have kept myself busy with work so we are doing pretty fine. I wish him nothing but success and health (not getting his tattoo removed).”
She addressed the matter after many of her followers asked a series of questions including whether she’s removing the tattoo with his face and if things are okay between them.
“This isn’t the first time I have posted my tattoo removal on my stories. I have been posting on and off for about two years now but this time so many people came forward with their overwhelming concern and questions [so] I felt I should address them,” she wrote.
Why she removed a tattoo at all was due to multiple reasons, according to her. Wanting to move on, choosing to let go and also fixing an “ugly, faded” tattoo is some of the things she listed.
Last year, she opened up about undergoing a painful surgical procedure. Taking to Instagram, the Beti star shared a picture of her surgery with stitches on her nose.
Revealing details about the painful experience, the Teri Meri Kahaani diva revealed that she had been dealing with this issue for a long time.
Moreover, the doctors had warned her that she would need surgery to repair the bone in her nose. But due to her apprehensions about going under the knife, she was anxious.
“I had a deviated septum. The doctor told us we’d need to operate on the nose and surgically fix the bone. I’ve always been afraid of going under the knife,” she wrote.
“And cosmetically removing a part of my face just freaked me out. I didn’t want to get it done then. This last year breathing had become extremely difficult. And with all this pollution around us, I thought it’s just wise to have two working nostrils filtering the air.”
Giving the good news that the surgery went perfectly fine, she wrote, “So, I did the surgery two months ago. Alhamdullilah it went perfectly fine. My fears about it were real though. Everything about it was painful and uncomfortable and scary. The procedure itself wasn’t complicated, but the post-operation time was hard.”
Further, she added, “Cosmetically solving medical issues is considered such a taboo thing to do in Pakistan, and it isn’t as people imagine it to be. It isn’t always about beautification, there are a good number of cases when it’s about alleviating pain and improving health.”
“It took eleven years of courage to get to this point, but I’m glad that I did it now, and can at least breathe normally,” she concluded.
On the work front, Saheefa was last seen in ARY Digital’s Log Kya Kahenge opposite Faysal Quraishi and Aijaz Aslam.
Halloween was celebrated in Saudi Arabia with crowds of people dressed up in spooky attire, attending a party in the country’s capital, Riyadh.
As part of the continuing Riyadh Season, the “Scary Weekend” event was held on Thursday and Friday at Riyadh’s Boulevard.
The Boulevard was transformed into a costume party with free admission for dressed-up guests as long as they donned frightful attire.
The event was held as part of the ongoing Riyadh Season in the Saudi capital. The intention was to create an environment that was enjoyable, thrilling, and exciting as visitors learned the backstories of the various character costumes.
