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.

  • Fatima Bhutto, Kamila Shamsie, 600 authors sign open letter protesting after Frankfurt Book Fair shuts down Palestinian author

    Fatima Bhutto, Kamila Shamsie, 600 authors sign open letter protesting after Frankfurt Book Fair shuts down Palestinian author

    Pakistani writer and columnist Fatima Bhutto and Pakistani-British author Kamila Shamsie were among the 600 writers, academics and translators who signed an open letter in support of Palestinian author Adania Shibli. The ceremony was set to celebrate Shibli’s novel ‘Minor Detail’ by giving her the 2023 LiBeraturpreis, a German literature prize annually awarded to authors from Africa, Asia, Latin American or from Arabia.

    Fatima shared a screenshot of the letter on her Instagram account and urged her followers to read ‘Minor Detail’.

    This outrage arrives after Frankfurt Book Fair postponed the awards ceremony which was due to honour Shibli, providing the explanation “due to the war started by the Hamas, under which millions of people in Israel and Palestine are suffering.”

    In the original statement, LitProm said this was a joint decision made with the author. However, Shibli’s literary agency revealed to The Guardian the decision was not made with her permission, and had the awards ceremony been held she would have taken the moment to reflect on the power of literature during these cruel times.

    The open letter which includes Bhutto, British historian William Darlymple, Shamsie, Irish novelist Colm Toibin, called out the organisers behind the Frankfurt Book Fair writing it holds “a responsibility to be creating spaces for Palestinian writers to share their thoughts, feelings, reflections on literature through these terrible, cruel times, not shutting them down.”

    The event was due to honor Adania’s 2020 novel ‘Minor Detail’ which details the true story about the rape and murder of a Palestinian Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers. The English translation was nominated for a National Book Award in 2020 and the International Booker Prize in 2021.

    Controversy surrounding the book began this week when the German newspaper, Die Tageszeitung, accused the book for portraying “the State of Israel as a murder machine.”

  • Six labourers in Turbat killed in terrorist attack

    Six labourers in Turbat killed in terrorist attack

    Six labourers, natives of Shujaabad, 50 kilometres away from Multan-were killed in their sleep in Turbat, Balochistan in a terrorist attack.

    The victims were all from the same family, including two brothers. They have been identified as Rizwan, Shehbaz, Waseem, Shafiq Ahmed, Mohammad Naeem and Sikander.

    The two survivors of the attack are Ghulam Mustafa and Tauheed.

    Earlier today, their bodies were sent to Multan via Quetta by the Balochistan Government. Caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Domki was present at the Khalid Military Airbase to send off the dead bodies via helicopter, brought to Quetta from Turbat last night. He expressed condolences to the families of the victims and stated that, “Everyone in Balochistan is saddened by the killing of innocent workers”.

    The poor labourers were shot by unknown gunmen while they were asleep in an under-construction house, said the police. An investigation has been initiated.

    PM Kakar also condemned the “heinous act” and reasserted the Government’s resolve against terrorism.

  • Constable suspended in India for a pro-Palestine post

    Constable suspended in India for a pro-Palestine post

    A new wave of anti-Palestinian hatred is sowing seeds in the religiously charged environment of India.

    The latest victim is UP constable Suhail Ansari, a Bareilly resident posted in Lakhimpur Kheri district since the past few months.

    A departmental enquiry has been launched against the constable for sharing a post, two days ago, in support of Palestine amid the ongoing war between Palestine and Israel, as per a report from The Hindustan Times.

    The Deputy Superintendent of Police in Kheri, Sandeep Singh informed media that the constable was suspended for sharing an objectionable post in which one dollar was to be donated for Palestine on sharing that post through his Facebook account. He said, he’ll be probed and if found guilty then stern action will be taken against him.

    The post read, “Help save Palestine. 1 repost=$ 1. All donations are directly to IslamicRelief USA. Add to the story to help save Palestine.”

  • Pulitzer prize winning journalist Azmat Khan shadow-banned by Instagram on Gaza posts

    Shadowbanning by Instagram continues as Israel’s war on Gaza is being criticized. This time Pulitzer winning journalist Azmat Khan has been targeted by the social media giant.

    Azmat is an investigative reporter with New York Times, a Carneige Fellow and the Birch Assistant Professor at Columbia Journalism School.

    She took to Twitter (now X) and wrote, “After posting an Instagram story about the war in Gaza yesterday, my account was shadowbanned.”

    Khan expressed concerns affirmed by fellow journalists, “It’s an extraordinary threat to the flow of information and credible journalism about an unprecedented war.”

    She laid it all out for the world to know that the situation is getting dire for the journalists reporting from the war-zone. There are already extraordinary challenges to getting information from the ground — the killing of journalists, internet blackouts and electricity cuts— but these reports from journalists raise troubling questions about free press in this war.

    Other journalists weighed in by pointing out the rampant shadowbanning which may cause the valuable on-ground documentation to be lost. Alessandro Accorsi hinted at the “mistake” by which meta banned all content related to Sheikh Jarrah back in 2021.

  • A school in India charges plastic bottles as fee

    A school in India charges plastic bottles as fee

    A school in India has adopted a unique means of educating underprivileged children while creating awareness about environmental concerns at the same time.

    In a remote village of the Indian state of Assam, plastic bottles are taken from children as fees.

    The school was started by a couple, Mazin Mukhtar and Parmita Sarma, in 2016 to reduce the growing pile of garbage in the village and to provide free quality education to the children.

    While no fee is taken from the students, they have to deposit 25 plastic bottles full of waste to the school every week.

    By recycling these plastic bottles and the waste they contain, roads, bricks and toilets are made.

    Older students earn a living by teaching the younger children.

    Apart from education, children are taught different languages, recycling of plastics, carpentry and gardening.

  • Father passes away while saving his children from drowning

    Father passes away while saving his children from drowning

    A video featuring a father and his two children struggling in the sea near Defence Phase VIII in Karachi has gone viral.

    Shehbaz Younas, accompanied by his two children, went to the beach to play, however, his children reportedly got stuck in a riptide. Younas jumped in to help his children. Security guards hurried to get them out of the sea and they were taken to the nearby private hospital, as confirmed by DG South.

    In a heart wrenching turn of events, the father could not survive while the children are now out of danger.

  • Two Palestinian students injured while helping their female Palestinian classmates from Pakistani harassers

    Two Palestinian students injured while helping their female Palestinian classmates from Pakistani harassers

    Two Palestinian students in Gujranwala Medical College were injured by a group of hooligans with a sharp instrument over the weekend, media reports have confirmed. 

    A case has been filed against the group of six whereas the two Palestinians have been provided with medical aid in the hospital.

    According to the police, Khuldoon and Abdul Karim have been living in a rented apartment near the medical college. The group was involved in eve-teasing their fellow female Palestinian students living in a neighbouring apartment. The Arab boys tried to stop the harassers, getting attacked in response. 

    Four of the attackers have been arrested by the police.

  • MSNBC reportedly removes three Muslim analysts from shows

    MSNBC reportedly removes three Muslim analysts from shows

    American broadcaster, MSNBC, has allegedly removed three Muslim news anchors from recording new episodes as Israel continues with bombing Gaza.

    Semafor reported that MSNBC did not air The Mehdi Hasan Show on Thursday, altered Ayman Mohyeldin’s programme and planned on having another anchor to substitute for Ali Velshi for the weekend.

    It has also been reported that a conflict within the organisation arose as an NBCU engineer created a “network-wide support event for staff who felt grief over the conflict”. But the conversation heated up after the engineer criticised Velshi’s show’s producer who asked why there were no Palestinians speaking at the event:

    “This is not about Palestinians and Jews/Israelis,

    “This is about terrorists and Jews/Israelis. Anyone entering this group needs to denounce terror and what happened on Saturday. Claims of ‘freedom fighting,’ rationalizations, really, anything not explicitly and unequivocally about being supportive during this difficult time; these do NOT belong here.”

    To which the producer responded, “You’re on here equating the loss of Palestinian civilian life with terrorism and saying that I have no right to grieve, as you do. You’re putting words in my mouth, demanding that I denounce terror as if I had anything to do with it. Not sure how you have managed to twist all this from a simple question asking, where can I, as someone with friends who are currently trapped in both Gaza and Israel, go to grieve?”

    The friction amongst the staff continued.

    According to Semafor, MSNBC has denied all accusations, and has”vehemently pushed back against any notion that anyone was being sidelined in any way.”

    While many pro-Israeli and Islamophobic individuals have welcomed the suspension, others have been highly critical of MSNBC’s open anti-Palestinian approach.

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  • Bureaucracy costs Rs.8 trillion to treasury: Survey

    Bureaucracy costs Rs.8 trillion to treasury: Survey

    Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has released a detailed study titled as “LifeTime Cost Of Public Servants” on its website.

    The state-run institute headed by economist Nadeemul Haque, has said that the study reveals that the federal government pays a total of Rs. 8 trillion to its Rs. 1.92 million government servants. Along with this expense come pensions for retired staff with six dozen kinds of privileges to the serving lot.

    It states that “The combined ratio of salaries, perks, and operating expenses is much higher for BPS-22 employees, earning 32.52 times from BPS-1 employees. This suggests that perks and benefits and operating expenditure are highly compressed, with a large gap between the highest and the lowest salaries.” Added to this disparity is the use of vehicles for personal use by officers from Grade 20-22 which costs more than 1.2 percent of the basic pay and the reimbursements of health allowances and medical bills cost the budget over Rs. 2.5 to 3 billion. The housing facility that has never been accounted for in the total cost of living.

    It has been pointed out very clearly that political hirings and promises by politicians to provide jobs for their voters is a big issue since their role is to create more opportunities and not offer jobs.

    A public servant of Grade-1 hired in July 2023 will be costing Rs.8.17 million including the salary, pension, perks and benefits that come with it for a period of thirty years. This goes on to increase for all the officers till Grade 17.

    The PIDE report suggests long-term planning, keeping in check all the major expenses spent on Government servants and before hiring a new one. Immediate job creation is good but rapid job creation may have negative effects on the economy in the longer run. It is important to strike a balance between short-term benefits and sustainable fiscal goals.

  • 70% of people in Gaza without health services: what do we know about day nine

    70% of people in Gaza without health services: what do we know about day nine

    More than 400 Palestinians killed in Israeli raids in one day

    Wafa news has reported that Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 400 Palestinians and 1,500 have been wounded in the past 24 hours.

    China on Israel

    During a call with Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi deemed Israel’s operation in Gaza as “beyond the scope of self-defence” and alluded to the Israeli government to “cease its collective punishment of” Palestinians.

    “All parties should not take any action to escalate the situation and should return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.”, he added.

    Gaza death toll climbs to 2,329

    According to the health ministry, at least 2,329 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as the result of Israeli attacks whereas 9,714 have been wounded.

    On the contrary, 1,300 people have been killed in the Hamas attack on Israel.

    126 Israeli captives

    According to the Israeli army, 126 people have been taken captive by Hamas since October 7 attacks, whereas at least 279 soldiers have died.

    Israeli military at Gaza border

    As per Al-Jazeera’s investigation, the Israeli army has been “struggling to deal with infiltrations by fighters from Gaza” since October 7 attacks by Qassam Brigades.

    Nonetheless, Israel continues to attack Gaza and intercept rockets.

    Israel’s military is also setting themselves along the border as hundreds of tanks and heavy military equipment are proceeding with operational positions, indicating severe operations in the coming days.

    Israeli soldiers harassing Palestinians in Jerusalem Old City

    Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City are now under intensified harassment at the hands of the Israelis.

    Al Jazeera spoke to Palestinians who said that they are now facing “new interrogation tactics at its entry points, including phone searches, increased use of physical force and vulgar insults”.

    Additionally, as per Wafa news, 50 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

    No access to health services for 70% of people in Gaza

    Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, reported that 70 percent of residents in the besieged Gaza Strip are without health services after the UNRWA evacuated its centres.

    Water crisis in Gaza

    As per the United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians, water has become a “matter of life and death” in the Gaza Strip as Israel has blocked water supply.

    UNRWA has stated that more than two million people are at risk.

    “It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must: Fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for two million people,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

    Additionally, it has been a week since no humanitarian supplies have been allowed into Gaza.

    Credits: Al-Jazeera