Author: newsdesk

  • Red alert: WHO, UNICEF say largest decline in childhood vaccinations in almost 30 years

    Red alert: WHO, UNICEF say largest decline in childhood vaccinations in almost 30 years

    The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded in official data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

    According to WHO, 18 million children did not receive a single vaccine in 2021, which is the largest decline in 29 years, due to Covid-related disruptions, emergencies and misinformation. Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations in 2021, which is two million more than those who missed out in 2020 and six million more than in 2019, highlighting the growing number of children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases. The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) – a marker for immunisation coverage within and across countries – fell 5 percentage points between 2019 and 2021 to 81 per cent.

    The decline was due to many factors including an increased number of children living in conflict and fragile settings, increased misinformation and Covid-related issues such as service and supply chain disruptions.

    However, Pakistan returned to pre-pandemic levels of vaccination coverage due to high-level government commitment and significant catch-up immunisation efforts. WHO and UNICEF applauded Pakistan’s efforts to achieve this in the midst of a pandemic, when healthcare systems and health workers were under significant strain.

    “This is a red alert for child health. We are witnessing the largest sustained drop in childhood immunisation in a generation. The consequences will be measured in lives,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.

    “While a pandemic hangover was expected last year as a result of Covid-19 disruptions and lockdowns, what we are seeing now is a continued decline. Covid-19 is not an excuse. We need immunisation catch-ups for the missing millions or we will inevitably witness more outbreaks, more sick children and greater pressure on already strained health systems,” added Russell.

  • Hareem Shah denies reports of being arrested in Turkey

    Hareem Shah denies reports of being arrested in Turkey

    TikTok star Hareem Shah has clarified that she was not arrested in Turkey. She also said that she will take legal action against media outlets spreading fake news regarding her arrest.

    “A [piece of] news against me has been circulating on social media, electronic media, print media and a lot of them [media outlets] contacted me as well but I was busy at the time. A few days back, there was fake news about me claiming I’d been arrested in Turkey. I stayed silent because what am I supposed to say about this kind of fake news? Every other day people spread fake news saying something against me that’s false,” she said in a video statement on her YouTube channel.

    “I will take legal action against all these channels. The way all of them — electronic media, print media and social media — were celebrating my alleged arrest. Honour and dishonour is in the hands of God and no such thing happened. I deny all false news about my arrest. You have previously spread fake news about my husband as well, ever since his name has joined mine. You used to put me down but now you have started speaking against him and spreading such fake news.”

    Earlier, media reports suggested that Hareem, along with her husband, had been arrested at an airport in Turkey after the Turkish police recovered a large amount of gold and money from them.

  • ‘This too shall pass’, Pakistani captain Babar Azam backs Virat Kohli to regain form

    ‘This too shall pass’, Pakistani captain Babar Azam backs Virat Kohli to regain form

    After the batter lost form and was benched for the upcoming West Indies series, the Pakistani captain Babar Azam spoke out in favor of the former Indian captain Virat Kohli to stay strong on Thursday night.

    Due to a groin injury, Kohli missed the first ODI against England and scored just 16 runs in the second game, which India lost by a score of 100 runs at Lord’s.

    After scoring 1 and 11 in the T20I series and failing in the rescheduled fifth Test, the right-hander has now gone 77 consecutive international innings without reaching three figures.

    Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal are both resting for the same tour, so his name is also absent from India’s T20I squad to play the West Indies.

    Fans and former greats have questioned Kohli’s place in the team because of the impending T20 World Cup and the need for World Test Championship points to stay in the running for next year’s final, but his Pakistani counterpart has expressed his support on social media.

    Few players have the same understanding of the challenges of maintaining world-class form as Pakistan’s captain, who is currently experiencing a golden period.

    Babar is ranked first in the MRF Tyres ICC batting rankings for both ODI and T20I matches, as well as fourth in Test cricket, after scoring international centuries in recent series against Australia and the West Indies as well as a T20I half-century against Australia in Lahore last month.

    Prior to the England ODIs, captain Rohit Sharma stood up for his teammate, giving Kohli additional support earlier in the week.

    “When someone is scoring consistently for so long, we can’t overlook his contribution if he is not scoring in one or two series or in one or two years.”

    “We know the importance of Virat Kohli. The experts have got all the right to talk about it but for us these things don’t matter,” he added.

  • Video: Toyota Supra brutally defeats Lamborghini Aventador

    Video: Toyota Supra brutally defeats Lamborghini Aventador

    In a recent video, a Toyota Supra was seen destroying a Lamborghini Aventador in an unexpected race.

    Supra enthusiasts have seen the legendary JDM car take down high-end vehicles before, however, this instance seems distinctive and makes you love Supra even more. The seemingly modified Supra destroyed the incredibly expensive supercar in a matter of seconds.

    The engine and modifications installed in this Supra are unknown, but when it comes to stock cars, the 2JZ-GTE is the best and most well-known of the two available engines for the 4th generation Toyota Supra.

    The letter “T,” which may not seem like much, distinguishes the two engines, the 2JZ-GTE and 2JZ-GE, and while it may not seem like much, it denotes the addition of two turbochargers to the 2JZ engine. While we’re talking about the significance of letters, the “G” stands for the performance version, and the “E” stands for electronic fuel injection.

    A 3.0-Liter twin-turbocharged inline-six engine, the 2JZ-GTE is only capable of producing 275 horsepower in the domestic Japanese version and 320 horsepower and 315 lb-ft in the American version.

    It is thrilling to watch a supercar get defeated by a Toyota every time, even though the stock engine appears impressive but is not powerful enough to defeat a Lamborghini.

  • Petrol price reduced by Rs18.50 per liter, Diesel by Rs40.54 per liter

    Petrol price reduced by Rs18.50 per liter, Diesel by Rs40.54 per liter

    In an attempt to provide relief to the masses and share the advantages of falling crude prices on the global market, the price of petrol has been slashed by Rs18.50 per liter.

    The price reductions for petroleum products were announced by the Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in an address to the nation.

    Diesel will now cost Rs236 per liter, while gasoline will now be sold at Rs230.24 per liter. The new prices for petroleum products, according to the Prime Minister, will take effect from midnight.

    He went on to explain why, after taking office, his government had to raise the price of gasoline. He continued, “We had raised fuel prices to meet the demands made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which were approved by the previous administration.

    “The government has decided to pass on the relief to the people and has therefore reduced the price of petrol and diesel by Rs18.50 and Rs40.54 per liter, respectively,” he continued.

  • Twitter is back after a 40-minute downtime

    Twitter is back after a 40-minute downtime

    Following a brief outage that was reported in Pakistan and around the world on Thursday, the microblogging website Twitter was once again operational.

    Around 8:05 AM ET, problems with the service began to surface. Many users reported receiving “over capacity” and even “this page is down” error messages. The problems impacted Twitter on the web, on mobile devices, and even in the TweetDeck app.

    Thousands of Twitter problems were reported by Downdetector, yet Twitter’s own status page stated that “all systems operational.” Many users were unable to log in or access tweets even when the main Twitter.com URL loaded.

    Around 8:40 AM ET, Twitter began to come back to life, and many users were able to tweet and access the service once more.

    During the outage, Twitter also tweeted that “Twitter and we’re working to get it back up and running for everyone.”

    This is the first significant outage on Twitter since the social network began experiencing issues in February. In February, Twitter went offline twice in a single week, rendering users in certain US regions unable to use the service owing to a technical problem that was blocking timelines from loading and Tweets from posting.

  • REVEALED: Ushna Shah’s boyfriend Hamza Amin, who is he?

    REVEALED: Ushna Shah’s boyfriend Hamza Amin, who is he?

    Actor Ushna Shah has introduced her boyfriend Hamza Amin to her fans through an Instagram post.

    The talented diva has made her relationship Instagram official as she confirmed that she is in a relationship with pro-golfer Hamza Amin who is the son of Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia Pacific Golf Federation.

    “Could you be my escort cause just like them two door Fords, damn they don’t make em like you no more ???? @hamza.amin87 ???????? by the unmatched @asimjofa #iwearasimjofa #ushnashah”, captioned the 32-year-old.

    Hamza also took to his Instagram handle to share pictures with his ladylove.

    His Instagram bio also reveals his achievements.

    Shah’s colleagues like Kubra Khan, Areeba Habib and Sana Javed commented under her picture.

    On the work front, Ushna is currently starring in Habs opposite Feroze Khan.

    Earlier this year when Shah uploaded some pictures of herself wearing a sky blue ensemble by Asim Jofa on Instagram. Some netizens found it a revealing dress and started giving hateful comments under the post.

    Instead of the Baala star replying to their comments, she opted to turn off comments on her Instagram profile. She edited the caption under the post.

    She wrote, “Apki trolling ke dar sey kaampein taang rahee hein so just going to keep the comments off.”

    She also gave a big shoutout to her colleague Sonya Hussyn who took one of her photos and dubbed it as her favourite pose of the day.

  • Govt may reduce petrol prices before midnight: Miftah Ismail

    Govt may reduce petrol prices before midnight: Miftah Ismail

    The government will lower petroleum prices before midnight, according to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, who also announced that Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has received a report from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) recommending the drop.

    Speaking to the media, he emphasised that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had no issues with the government’s decision.

    The announcement came the same day the IMF announced that it had reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan for the conclusion of the combined seventh and eighth reviews of the Extended Fund Facility; the agreement is now awaiting the Executive Board’s approval.

    Additionally, he declared that the government will lower oil prices now rather than wait until July 15th (14 July). “PM Shehbaz wants to announce immediate relief to the people of Pakistan,” he said. “The public stood with the government during difficult times and bore the burden of inflation and now we want to provide relief.”

    In its conclusion, Ogra suggested lowering the cost of gasoline by Rs18 per liter and diesel by more than Rs20 per liter.

    The decision to lower petroleum product prices was made in response to recent sharp declines in the price of crude oil on the world market.

    The government approved a price increase for petroleum products on June 30. The increase brought the new ex-depot price of gasoline to Rs248.74 per liter (up Rs14.85), and diesel to Rs276.54 (after a hike of Rs13.23).

    On July 1, the new rates became effective. In the pricing structure, a petroleum levy of Rs10 had been added to the cost of gasoline, and Rs5 had been added to the cost of kerosene, high-speed diesel, and light diesel oil per liter.

  • Sheikh Rasheed to appear before anti-corruption department tomorrow

    Sheikh Rasheed to appear before anti-corruption department tomorrow

    The Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) summoned former interior minister and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed in a corruption case tomorrow (Friday).

    The accusations against him are that he embezzled millions of rupees on account of fees in the sale of state land to Life Residencia Islamabad Housing Society. In this regard, ACE also summoned the management of the housing society.

    According to Dawn, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader has claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif has a personal grudge against Rasheed. The leader didn’t comment on ACE inquiry but he said that “he [Rasheed] is among those the Sharifs are not going to spare as long they are in power”.

    Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed a Rs720 million laundering case against Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Moonis Elahi.

    At the time, the PML-Q leader alleged that he was being pressurised by the PML-N. He said, “The PML-N is at a loss to understand that it can pressure me to change my loyalty towards former premier and PTI chairman Imran Khan. We will not abandon Khan, come what may.”

  • Best Samsung phones available in Pakistan under Rs25,000

    Best Samsung phones available in Pakistan under Rs25,000

    Due to the ongoing depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar and high PTA approval fees, phone prices have increased significantly over the past three years, along with the prices of other gizmos.

    Even so, Samsung, a reputable phone manufacturer, offers a limited number of options on the market that you can take into consideration as Samsung smartphones are known for being more durable than those of other lesser-known brands.

    Here are some of the best cell phones available on the market at reasonable prices:

    Samsung A02 – Price: Rs16,699

    Display: IPS Capacitive Touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 32GB Built-in, 3GB RAM  

    Main Camera: Dual 13 MP, f/1.9, (wide), AF + 2 MP, f/2.4

    Front Camera: 5 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh 

    Samsung A03 Core – Price: Rs18,500

    Display: PLS TFT Capacitive touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 32GB Built-in, 2GB RAM  

    Main Camera: 8 MP, LED Flash 

    Front Camera: 5 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh 

    Samsung A03  –  Price: Rs21,999

    Display: PLS TFT Capacitive touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 32GB Built-in, 2GB RAM  

    Main Camera: Dual 48 MP, f/1.8, (wide), AF + 2 MP 

    Front Camera: 5 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh 

    Samsung A03s – Price: Rs22,499

    Display: PLS TFT Capacitive touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 32GB Built-in, 3GB RAM  

    Main Camera: Triple Camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide), AF + 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) + 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)

    Front Camera: 5 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh 

    Samsung A03 4GB – Price: Rs23,999

    Display: PLS TFT Capacitive touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 64GB Built-in, 4GB RAM  

    Main Camera: Triple Camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide), AF + 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) + 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)

    Front Camera: 5 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh 

    Samsung A12 – Price: Rs24,999

    Display: PLS TFT Capacitive touchscreen

    Screen Size: 6.5 inches

    ROM and RAM: 64GB Built-in, 4GB RAM  

    Main Camera: Quad Camera: 48 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), AF + 5 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide) + 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) + 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)

    Front Camera: 8 MP

    Battery: 5,000 mAh (15W fast charging)