Category: Lifestyle

The lifestyle of millennials is underreported in our mainstream media. The Current’s lifestyle news covers social events and issues that are unique.

  • Pro-Palestinian students, protest groups suppressed in American schools, universities

    Three separate cases of suppression of pro-Palestinian students and groups have been reported in America in just one day as voices are raised higher against the genocide of Gaza. Israeli tanks have forced citizens of Northern Gaza to walk countless miles towards the South with their hands in the air, a scene that has been described as “The Second Nakba”.

    Columbia University announced that they are suspending pro-Palestine groups ‘Jewish Voice For Peace’ and ‘Students For Justice In Palestine’- both comprised majorly of Jewish students- who called for a ceasefire.

    Columnist and writer Fatima Bhutto, a Columbia alum, slammed the decision.

    Columbia University is the institute where famous academic Edward Said taught, who dedicated his life to bringing the occupation of Palestine to light.

    The current president of Columbia University, Egyptian-American economist Nemat Talaat Shafik, is drawing outrage from social media users.

    At Harvard University, a black student was evicted from campus housing for acting as a student safety marshal during the protests.

    Previously, pro-Palestinian supporters at Harvard were doxxed after an open letter by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee condemned the genocide of Gaza.

    In California, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was suspended for three days by Corona Del Mar School for responding ‘Free Palestine’ to racists who were bullying him. The school notice was shared on social media by journalist Amina Waheed, who said that the school admin told the boy’s aunt saying ‘Free Palestine’ was akin to calling for the death of all Jews.

    The action against students takes place while several documented cases of Islamophobia, racism towards Palestinians have come to light. On October 17, a Palestinian-American boy was stabbed to death by his neighbour. On October 30, Pakistani-American doctor Talat Jehan Khan was stabbed out side her apartment complex in Texas.

    Social media users showed outrage at Corona del Mar High School and the racism shown towards Palestinian children.

  • Indonesia: Chief Justice dismissed over decision in favor of the President’s son

    Indonesia: Chief Justice dismissed over decision in favor of the President’s son

    A judicial panel in Indonesia has dismissed the Chief Justice of the country over allegations of conflict of interest. It was reported that Chief Justice Anwar Usman gave a verdict in favour of President Joko Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

    Last month, Chief Justice who happened to be the President’s relative, gave a ruling regarding the age limit of vice-presidential elections, a decision critics saw as favouring him to a great extent. The controversy led to an outrage resulting in his dismissal by the panel of judges in the top court.

    The judicial panel found him guilty of violating the ethical code of judges as he is the brother-in-law of the president and should have remained neutral but he could not recuse himself.

    The panel was asked to investigate the conduct of judges amid public outcry after they ruled that the minimum age requirement of 40 need not apply to election candidates who had previously held elected office. The ruling was made just days before the start of registration for the 2024 election. The 36-year-old, already serving as a mayor of Surakarta city, was able to register for the election of the vice president.

    The panel has decided that Justice Anwar can serve as one of the nine judges of the court but must not take part in any election-related cases in the future as those fall under a conflict of interest. The rest of the eight judges have also been reprimanded by the panel.

    Criticism against the decision stemmed from the public seeing the step as part of Widodo’s aim of forming a dynasty by appointing his son the the vice-president. He himself has completed two terms and has not backed any candidate formally for upcoming elections.

  • Punjab govt aborts smart lockdown plan after rain improves air quality

    Authorities in Punjab have lifted a ‘smart lockdown’ from Lahore and other cities after Friday morning brought in rain, dramatically improving air quality.

    Within the provincial capital, rainfall was recorded across various regions, including Gulberg, Garden Town, Iqbal Town, Multan Road, Thokar Niaz Baig, Jail Road, Mall Road, Johar Town, Canal Road, and Raiwind Road.

    The government of Punjab has lifted the smart lockdown enforced in the city, with caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi announcing on Twitter, “Markets open tomorrow, and restaurants can resume operations after 6 pm. The recent restrictions related to SMOG will be lifted from tomorrow morning.” This will be effective from today.

    The weather has become considerably cooler, providing a much-needed break from the toxic smog that had engulfed the air. However, the average air quality index is 182 but in certain parts of the city, including Cantt and DHA Phase 8, the numbers are higher than in other areas.

    It is important to note that this stroke of luck could be very short-lived as the dire condition of air quality in Lahore requires stringent measures to be taken.

  • More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    More than 100 activists occupy New York Times lobby, read out names of 10,000 murdered Palestinians

    On Thursday more than 100 activists, including writers and journalists, protested outside The New York Times head office to criticise the publication for their complicity in the genocide of Gaza, as the death toll climbs up to almost 11,000 Palestinians.

    Israeli tanks are currently surrounding all of the hospitals in Gaza with no opportunity for doctors and patients to leave, or for food and medicine to arrive.

    In viral videos, the journalists distributed a mock newspaper of the publication titled ‘The New York Crimes’ which listed the names of the 36 Palestinian journalists who have been confirmed dead since Israel declared war on Gaza.

    The activists accused NYT of complicity in the genocide in Palestine, demanding that the editorial board of the newspaper publicly back a ceasefire in Gaza.

  • Sister Zeph from Gujranwala wins The Global Teacher Prize 2023

    Sister Zeph from Gujranwala wins The Global Teacher Prize 2023

    Sister Zeph, the founder of Zephaniah Education and Empowerment Foundation, received the Global Teacher Prize 2023 worth a million dollars, on November 8.

    Sister Zeph began teaching when she was 13 years old in the courtyard of her home in Gujranwala. Her students were neighbourhood children who couldn’t afford school fees. She has empowered many students from underprivileged backgrounds in a journey spanning 27 years. Her organization is operating two schools and a skills centre primarily in Gujranwala, with students from 11 nearby villages, all of them from humble families.

    She got selected from over 7,000 nominations for the Global Teacher Prize from 130 countries around the world. The ceremony was held at UNESCO’S General Conference in Paris where she accepted her award. “We are delighted to announce that Sister Zeph, an English, Urdu, culture, inter-faith harmony, climate change teacher at Gujranwala, Punjab in Pakistan, has been named the winner of the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2023,” the orgnisation announced in a statement.

    UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay congratulated the Pakistani teacher on receiving the prestigious award. “We all remember a teacher who has had an impact on our life and changed our future. It may sound like a truism but it’s true: teachers are life-changers. Congrats to Sister Zeph from Pakistan, 2023 Global Teachers Prize Winner. Thanks to her for her commitment as a life-changer,” she wrote on her Twitter handle.

    With this award, she plans to open another bigger school on a scale of 10 acres where children from poor families can be educated without any discrimination. She has aims of making an orphan house as well where kids will be taught about a range of subjects.

    In an interview, she said that she felt the need to become a teacher because she believed “there should be more people in this profession” and because she thought that there should be more children in school.

  • Karachi Fishermen catch Sowa fish worth Rs. 700 million

    Karachi Fishermen catch Sowa fish worth Rs. 700 million

    Fishermen from Ibrahim Haideri in Karachi caught a whole lot of Sowa fish, reportedly worth Rs. 700 million, says a report by Geo.

    According to the Coastal Media Centre in Karachi, Sowa fish is extremely expensive. One fish costs around 70 hundred thousand to 10 million in Pakistani rupees. Its meat costs a thousand rupees per kg.

    The fat in its stomach is rare and is used to form sutures used in surgeries.

    Fishermen were extremely excited and happy as the news broke out.

  • New Delhi schools go on early winter break as smog suffocates Indian capital

    New Delhi schools go on early winter break as smog suffocates Indian capital

    Amidst its fight to reduce suffocating levels of smog, the Indian capital, New Delhi, has announced a ten-day-long winter break in schools throughout the city.

    Over in Pakistan, the hazardous air has worsened to the extent that the government announced a four-day health emergency from November 9 to 12 in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Hafizabad. Schools, markets, offices, and restaurants shall remain closed in these cities.

    Following the trail, New Delhi announced an early winter break for the session of 2023-24 in schools from November 9-18. The notification asserted that the step has been taken after observing “severe air quality prevailing in Delhi” and that there is “no respite from such adverse weather conditions in the near future”.

    Lahore and New Delhi have been vying with each other in the charts of air quality index, being the top two most polluted cities in the world.

  • Why the mass killings and exodus of Gazans from the North to the South is being called the second Nakba

    On Wednesday, Motaz Azaiza, one of the journalists sharing details of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, shared a picture of Gazans walking on a highway in a long line. “People evacuating the city to the south of the strip. It’s literally a new Nakba.”

    Nakba is the most momentous event in all of Palestinian history, especially the history of the last century with Israelis. It literally means “catastrophe” and refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israelis in 1948. It has been 75 years now that zionist forces took 78 percent of the historic land of Palestine and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of 70 massacres. 7,50,000 Palestinians out of 1.9 million were made refugees in their own land as Israel established a Jewish majority state, fulfilling their Zionist motives.

    The official commemoration of this expulsion and ethnic cleansing by Palestinians around the world was done on May 15, 1948, but the facts reveal more than half of the displacement was already done by then.

    Since then, there have been many Arab-Israeli wars and many attempts to displace Palestinians. Israel, originally given 55 percent of the land by the UN, now owns 85 percent of it. However, it openly wishes to have control over all of it. In his address to the UN in September, Benjamin Netanyahu displayed two maps that showed the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as part of Israel. The repeated calls to move to the South after October 7, is actually more than revenge.

    In one of the videos posted by Motaz, it can be seen that tens of thousands of Palestinians are moving to the South- in front of the Israeli army- raising their hands to show that they are unarmed. In a number of incidents, these caravans have been bombed too.

    This has been confirmed as the Israeli government claims that some 50,000 people have fled Northern Gaza to the South.

    On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are not obeying these orders because they believe there is no place safe from Israel’s bombings and that they would rather die at home.

    Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu Artema in his message to The News International has already called for the world to take action as he firmly thinks “This is the second Nakba”.

  • Bangladesh police clash with 25,000 protesting garment workers

    Up to 25,000 garment workers clashed with police in Bangladesh on Thursday, officials said, as protests rejecting a government-offered pay rise forced the closure of at least 100 factories outside Dhaka.

    A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 percent for the South Asian nation’s four million garment factory workers, who are seeking a near-tripling of their monthly wage.

    Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands including Levi’s, Zara and H&M.

    But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay starts at 8,300 taka ($75).

    Police said violence broke out in the industrial towns of Gazipur and Ashulia outside the capital after more than 10,000 workers staged protests in factories and along highways to reject the panel’s offer.

    “There were 10,000 (protesting) workers at several spots. They threw bricks and stones at our officers and factories, which were open,” Mahmud Naser, Ashulia’s deputy industrial police chief, told AFP.

    “One of our officers was injured. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the workers,” Naser said.

    He said more than 100 factories were shut down in Ashulia and surrounding areas.

    Thousands of workers also clashed with the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police at Konabari and Naujore in Gazipur, with police using batons and tear gas to drive them into alleys, AFP correspondents at the scene said.

    “Some 15,000 workers blocked the road at Konabari, and vandalised vehicles and other properties. We had to disperse them to maintain law and order,” Gazipur municipality administrator Sayed Murad Ali told AFP.

    At least two injured workers were taken to hospital, police said.

    Intimidation

    The workers are seeking a wage rise to 23,000 taka and unions representing them have rejected the panel’s increase as “farcical”.

    Police say at least three workers have been killed since the wage protests broke out in key industrial towns last week, including a 23-year-old woman shot dead on Wednesday.

    At least six police officers have also been injured in the protests.

    Unions say the panel’s wage increase fails to match soaring prices of food, house rents and schooling and healthcare costs.

    They have also accused the government and police of arresting and intimidating organisers.

    “Police arrested Mohammad Jewel Miya, one of the organisers of our unions. A grass-roots leader… was also arrested,” Rashedul Alam Raju, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Federation (BIGWUF), told AFP.

    Another union leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least six union leaders had been arrested and unions were being threatened by police to call off the protests and accept the wage offer.

    There was no immediate comment from police about the arrests.

    The United States has condemned violence against protesting Bangladeshi garment workers and “the criminalisation of legitimate worker and trade union activities”.

    In a statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged the panel “to revisit the minimum wage decision to ensure that it addresses the growing economic pressures faced by workers and their families”.

    Thea Lee, the US Department of Labor’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs, called for the release of BIGWUF organiser Miya.

    The Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign, a textile workers’ rights group, has also dismissed the new pay level as a “poverty wage”.

    The minimum wage is fixed by a state-appointed board that includes representatives from the manufacturers, unions and wage experts.

  • Major Breakthrough in Fatima Murder Case

    Major Breakthrough in Fatima Murder Case

    Sindh’s caretaker Minister of Law and Human Rights, Muhammad Umar Sumro, confirmed that DNA samples collected from Pir Asad Shah, the prime suspect in Fatima murder case, have matched with the semen traces found on the victim’s clothing.

    He was addressing the National Judicial Conference at a local hotel in Karachi.

    On August 14, ten-year-old Fatima Pharriro was brutally subjected to physical and sexual violence, allegedly by Pir Asad Shah and his wife Hina Shah, and was found dead at their haveli in Ranipur.

    A case was lodged on the complaint of her mother, Shabnam Khatoon, under Sections 302 (intentional murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Ranipur police station and an investigation was initiated.

    The minister further highlighted that DNA samples initially did not yield a match due to the alleged tampering of evidence by officials of the health department, reportedly under the influence of the suspect.

    A breakthrough occurred when the samples were sent to a facility in Punjab for processing, and the subsequent analysis established a clear match between the DNA obtained from the suspect and the samples found on the victim’s clothes.

    According to an earlier DNA report from the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Jamshoro, the examination of the semen stains on the deceased girl’s clothing had revealed “mixed DNA profiles,” providing crucial evidence in the ongoing investigation of this tragic case.

    Court Updates

    On November 8, all suspects were produced by jail authorities, and the final charge sheet was submitted by the investigation officer. for the charge frame.

    According to the final challan report, the DNA report has not been submitted to the court yet.

    The DNA report has been submitted to Police Surgeon Karachi, as per the final post-mortem report, the supplementary post-mortem report will be submitted after the DNA report.

    Therefore, after receiving the supplementary post-mortem report, it will be produced.

    Fatima’s case
    A domestic maid, 10-year-old child Fatima Phuriro, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Ranipur.

    The child had been working as a domestic worker at a haveli owned by an influential local, Pir Asad Shah Jilani.

    Fatima’s mother, Shabana, was informed about the death by the employer who asked her to remove the body from the premises.

    According to DIG Sukkur Javed Jiskani, the parents initially did not share the facts of the case with the police and claimed that the girl was suffering from gastroenteritis.

    While her diagnosis was also confirmed by Dr Abdul Fatah Memon who treated her, the DIG revealed that Fatima was taken to the hospital either by the Pir or his staff and that the SHO was present at the time she was pronounced dead.

    It was not until videos of the child were leaked by an unknown source and circulated on social media that the case caught the media’s eye. By then, the family had buried Fatima on August 15.

    The body was later exhumed and sent for an autopsy which revealed that the girl had been raped both vaginally and anally.

    Fatima’s parents revealed heartbreaking details when we talked to them in September this year.