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.

  • Schools shut down? Here are some fun indoor activities for your kid

    With the coronavirus – declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation – spreading fast in Pakistan, the government has opted to shut down all schools, colleges and madrassas throughout the country till April 5 to control the spread of the virus.

    Due to the closure of schools and colleges, the kids will have to stay at home to remain safe from the virus. The Current has listed a few exciting activities for the kids so that they can be more productive during these unexpected holidays.

    Learning through YouTube channels

    To make sure that your kids spend their holidays learning new things, what you can do is make technology their new friend. YouTube channels for kids, like Crash Course Kids, can be their new learning place. Other YouTube channels from where your kid can learn stuff are:

    • Science Channel
    • SciShow Kids
    • National  Geographic Kids
    • Free School
    • Geography Focus
    • TheBrainScoop
    • SciShow
    • Kids Learning Tube
    • Geeek Gurl Diaries
    • Mike Likes Science
    • Science Max
    • SoulPancake

    Apart from YouTube channels there are many free learning websites available over the internet for your kids to learn including:

    https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html

    https://allinonehomeschool.com

    https://www.starfall.com/h

    https://www.abcya.com

    https://www.funbrain.com

    It goes without saying that you cannot force your kids to study or watch informational videos all the time, therefore we have also done our research for some fun indoor activities for your kids to keep them busy.

    • Board games
    • Tinkering/upcycling with household junk
    • Paper games
    • Musical Chairs
    • Puzzles

    If your children are still bored after playing all the games and insist on going out, the first thing you need to do is to explain to them why they can’t be outside and then can take them on a virtual tour of the 12 famous museums around the world. To go on a virtual tour, visit the link below:

    https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

  • Coronavirus: SAT exams cancelled

    Coronavirus: SAT exams cancelled

    The College Board has announced that it has cancelled two upcoming SAT exams due to coronavirus concerns.

    Tests scheduled for May and makeup exams for the March have also cancelled and registered students will receive full refunds, the College Board said in a statement.

    A new date has not yet been announced for additional SAT testing opportunities.

    “The College Board will remain focused on student safety and ensuring all students have the tools they need to work, and opportunities to receive the credit they have earned, during this challenging time,” the statement read.

    The news comes as schools nationwide have temporarily shut down over coronavirus alarms. Many colleges and universities have also moved to online classes.

  • 13 new polio cases reported in a single day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    13 new polio cases reported in a single day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    In a shocking development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 13 new cases of type 2 polio cases. This is the highest number of cases to be reported in the province in one day.

    According to the provincial health department, seven of the cases were reported from Khyber tribal district, while one case each was reported from Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Mardan, Nowshera, Bajaur and Lower Dir.

    WATCH: The Current tours Pakistan’s Polio Lab

    A senior public health specialist told a leading newspaper on condition of anonymity, that several Pakistani health specialists had raised the issues over the polio programme, but “they are either sidelined or kicked out of the programme,” also adding that the reason why the virus spreading so fast is that not every child is being reached in infected areas and the government is missing a lot of children that need to be vaccinated.

    “Pakistan has this year reported 25 cVDP2 (type 2) cases, in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone had a share of 24,” the report said. Type 2 polio does not cause paralysis but is debilitating. The type 2 virus was eliminated in the country in 2016 and reemerged last year.

    In 2019, Pakistan had reported 22 cases of type two polio cases, including 16 from KP. These were apart from type one polio cases in 2020, which are 29 in the country and 15 in KP.

    “It is a money-driven programme and huge salaries and incentives are being taken by the consultants at the top level. Unfortunately, some people in the programme are very influential and answerable to none and they set their agenda ignoring local needs and requirements,” he maintained, according to The News.

    Another senior official said that after working with the polio programme for many years, he realises that the elimination of polio is not a priority.

  • Pakistani couple distributes free coronavirus prevention kits in UK

    A Pakistani couple living in the United Kingdom is trying to keep those around them safe amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

    As per reports, the couple, who run a little confectionary shop in the Scottish town of Falkirk, is not only distributing prevention kits in their area but is also preparing those kits. They are distributing the kits free of charge to every elderly person walking inside their shop.

    Jawad and his wife both also make special efforts to hand-deliver kits at the doorsteps of the elderly living in their surroundings.

    Scotland is the second biggest province of the United Kingdom where the reported cases of coronavirus have surged to 85.

    Earlier in the day, a newborn was diagnosed with the disease, making him/her to be the youngest person in the United Kingdom (UK) to have caught coronavirus.

    North Middlesex University Hospital said two patients had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which has killed more than 5,000 people worldwide.

  • Social entrepreneur from Pakistan wins Common Wealth Youth Award

    Pakistani social entrepreneur Hafiz Usama Tanveer has won the Commonwealth Youth Award for his exceptional contribution in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Pakistan. Tanveer was selected from 500 award nominations from 40 countries.

    An official statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat stated that the awards were presented during a gathering at the Commonwealth headquarters in London. Apart from the honour, the winning candidates also received a grant of £3,000 to expand their projects in their respective regions.

    Tanveer is the co-founder and Chief Technologist Founder of Pak Vitae, a social enterprise that has created water purification kits to help prevent the spread of waterborne diseases in poor communities and refugee camps. The enterprise has reached more than 11,000 people including victims of India’s Kerala flooding.

    Tanveer received the honour in the ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ category.

    Meanwhile, Jaya Rajwani, from Pakistan, was also shortlisted for the same award. Rajwani is the technical lead for ‘Aurat Raaj’ a social enterprise that creates technology-based products and services to educate girls on health, hygiene and safety. She was nominated in the category of ‘Gender Equality’.

    Other winners include people from Fiji, Canada and Uganda where they are running successful social enterprises for the betterment of their regional communities.

    https://www.facebook.com/PakUSAlumni/photos/a.229362303770534/3791248380915224/?type=3&theater
  • Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel’s Urdu publisher shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Voltaire award

    Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel’s Urdu publisher shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Voltaire award

    Pakistani publishing house Maktaba-e-Daniyal, which published a translated Urdu version of Mohammed Hanif’s controversial novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, has been shortlisted for the prestigious International Publishers Association’s (IPA) Prix Voltaire honour.

    The publishing house had come under fire in January 2020 for publishing the Urdu translation of the novel, which presents a satirical take on the plane crash that killed former military dictator, General Ziaul Haq. The book won the Best First Book Award in the year 2009 in the Commonwealth Book Prize.

    Hanif took to social media to share the news and express his excitement.

    The prize honours those publishers who have presented courage and have exercised their right to freedom of expression. It also carries a cash prize of $9,000.

    According to IPA, “Freedom of expression and freedom to publish are human rights under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet the freedom to publish is under continuous, sustained daily attack, with writers and publishers vilified, jailed, tortured and killed merely for doing their jobs. In 2005, the IPA created the Freedom to Publish Prize to honour a person or organisation adjudged to have made a significant contribution to the defence and promotion of freedom to publish in the world. In 2016, the prize was renamed the IPA Prix Voltaire, in tribute to the French philosopher and writer François-Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire), who propounded a doctrine of tolerance and free expression before the terms were in general use. Moreover, between 1755 and 1759 Voltaire lived in Geneva, Switzerland, where the IPA is based, before moving to the nearby French border town of Ferney, which was renamed Ferney-Voltaire in his honour after the French Revolution.”

    Other publishing houses that have been short-listed include Turkish publishing house Avesta Yayinlari, which has faced several lawsuits, investigations and attacks; Gerakbudaya Publishing House in Malaysia which has published a number of books on controversial topics; and Liberal Publishing House in Vietnam which presented a “direct challenge” to the government which attempted to control the publishing industry in Vietnam.

    The winner of this years’ award will be announced at the 33rd International Publishers Congress in Norway scheduled to take place in May.

  • Govt clarifies report on Sindh CM’s brother-in-law ‘contracting coronavirus’

    Govt clarifies report on Sindh CM’s brother-in-law ‘contracting coronavirus’

    A Sindh government spokesperson, in an exclusive conversation with The Current, has rubbished reports claiming that Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah’s brother-in-law has contracted coronavirus as the pandemic spreads across Karachi.

    With nine new cases in Sindh, the total number of cases of the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — in Pakistan on Monday rose to 16, out of which two patients are undergoing treatment in Islamabad while one female patient is undergoing treatment at a health facility in Gilgit-Baltistan.

    The development was followed by a private media outlet’s report that one of the persons who had tested positive for coronavirus in Karachi had reached the port city from Syria via Doha on Sunday, and was the brother-in-law of Sindh CM.

    “Asif Hyder Shah is a federal secretary and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Karachi after testing positive for COVID-19,” the report had claimed.

    The claim, however, was rejected by a spokesperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in Sindh. “Asif Hyder Shah is a federal secretary and brother-in-law of Murad Ali Shah, but he hasn’t tested positive for the virus,” the spokesperson told The Current.

    While it was confirmed that seven persons who reached Karachi from Syria via Doha had tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two days, CM Murad’s brother-in-law wasn’t among them.

    Meanwhile, strict measures have been taken by the government, including extending border closure with Afghanistan for seven more days and installing screening machines at all major airports in the country.

    According to reports, the Sindh government is considering a proposal to issue an advisory requesting a ban on public events, including the Pakistan Super League (PSL), and it is likely that the remaining matches of the PSL to be held in Karachi will be shifted to Lahore.

    A meeting of the provincial authorities has also recommended setting up a health desk at the Karachi airport.

    With the help of the desk, all those entering Karachi through the airport will be screened for the coronavirus. A spokesperson for the health department said health desks will also be established at hospitals, Geo reported.

    The desks at hospitals, named front-line desks, will provide up-to-date information about the spread of the virus in the city. 

    A recommendation to shut schools in the province for a longer period will also be sent to the Sindh CM; exams would, however, be held as per schedule, the Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah has said.

  • Sindh Food Authority seals Dunkin Donuts factory for using expired products

    Sindh Food Authority seals Dunkin Donuts factory for using expired products

    A donut factory was temporarily sealed for using substandard and expired products in Karachi’s SITE Industrial area.

    As per reports, the Sindh Food Authority (SFA) conducted a raid at the Dunkin Donuts factory on Monday and found expired bunties and sub-standard ingredients.

    The SFA team also found unrefined items that had been intermixed.

    Factory hygiene rules were also being violated, officials said. A fine of Rs250,000 has been imposed. SFA Operations Director Imtiaz Abro discarded the substandard food items.

  • Kate and William highlight the Pakistani women who inspired them

    Kate and William highlight the Pakistani women who inspired them

    Prince William and Kate Middleton marked International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, by sharing a list of “remarkable” women who inspired them in the past year. And it turns out that the women of the SOS Children’s Village in Lahore are among those who inspired the royal couple.

    The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s official Instagram account shared a picture of the couple at the SOS Village with which they wrote, “The women of the SOS Children’s Village in Lahore, Pakistan: where staff provide children, deprived of their natural parents, with an environment which is as close as possible to a natural home, along with loving care, security, higher education and job-training.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B9d9e5FlDG5/

    Kate and William visited Pakistan last year in October and their five-day trip included a visit to the SOS orphanage in Lahore. Kate was reportedly so moved with the visit that when an unexpected thunderstorm forced them to spend the night in Lahore, the next day the couple made a secret visit back to the orphanage where they spent time with the children there and played cricket with them.

    The Duchess’ first-ever Instagram post, shared through the Kensington Royal account, was also about her visit to the SOS Village.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B30URB0lk3d/?utm_source=ig_embed

    William was also touched when a little girl presented him with a handmade bracelet. He wore the blue design for the rest of the day at his following engagements.

    Check out some more pictures from their secret visit:

  • QUIZ: Which Aurat March Poster Are You?

    Take the quiz to find out which poster suits your personality the most:

    Edit quiz