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Disney officially announces ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’, prequel of ‘The Lion King’

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins has officially announce Mufasa: The Lion King, a new prequel to the 2019 film Lion King.

Originally announced in 2020 as a sequel to the 2019 film, Mufasa tells the origin story of the iconic Disney father, exploring his childhood growing up with his brother Scar. The film will feature the voice of Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as younger versions of the characters, filling in for James Earl Jones as Mufasa in both the 1994 original and the 2019 CGI remake, and Jeremy Irons and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villainous Scar.

In addition to announcing the title, exclusive preview footage of the film was shown to the audience of the D23 expo. The footage began with Rafiki (John Kani) telling the story of Mufasa to young cubs, revealing that the lion was actually an orphaned cub who had to navigate the world alone until he rose to become the king of Pride Rock. As such, the film goes beyond the iconic Pride Lands to show him as a cub in a desert, where he is swept away by a flood and becomes an orphan.

“In this place a lion was born without a drop of nobility in his blood,” Rafiki narrates. “The lion who would change our lives forever.”

Although brief, the footage also included narration from Billy Eichner’s Timon, in a meta joke tag for the footage: “Wait wait wait, am I not in this story? I don’t feel seen.”

“The Lion King” is one of the most beloved Disney properties of all time, with the original remaining a critically acclaimed classic and grossing over $960 million worldwide. The 2019 remake, which replaced the 2D artstyle of the original with realistic CGI animal renderings, received mixed reviews from critics but was even more successful, grossing over $1 billion at the global box office.

Mufasa will be Jenkins third feature film, after directing the Oscar-winning Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk . The release date for the film has not yet been announced.

September 10, 2022
King Charles officially proclaimed as Britain’s new monarch

King Charles was officially proclaimed as Britain’s new monarch on Saturday at a ceremony in St. James’s Palace. The former Prince of Wales ‘Has become lawfully and rightfully Lord of Britain and Commonwealth’ on September 10.

Charles, 73, succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, immediately after her death on Thursday but an Accession Council met on Saturday to proclaim his succession, with his son and heir William, wife Camilla, and Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, among those to sign the proclamation.

Making his personal declaration, Charles said: “My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen. It is my most sorrowful duty to announce to you the death of my beloved Mother, The Queen,” said Charles.

“I know how deeply you, the entire Nation – and I think I may say the whole world – sympathise with me in the irreparable loss we have all suffered.”

“In carrying out the heavy task that has been laid upon me, and to which I now dedicate what remains to me of my life, I pray for the guidance and help of Almighty God.”

“In taking up these responsibilities, I shall strive to follow the inspiring example I have been set in upholding constitutional government and to seek the peace, harmony, and prosperity of the peoples of these Islands and of the Commonwealth Realms and Territories throughout the world.”

“In this purpose, I know that I shall be upheld by the affection and loyalty of the peoples whose Sovereign I have been called upon to be and that in the discharge of these duties I will be guided by the counsel of their elected parliaments.”

In his address, he bestowed upon Prince William and Kate Middleton the titles of the Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales.

Charles is now the King and head of state of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.

September 10, 2022
‘Never wanted a son after four daughters’: Shagufta Ejaz gets candid about personal life

Veteran actor Shagufta Ejaz recently appeared on Taaron Se Karien Baatien, where she candidly talked about her personal life. The Mushkil star stated on the show that she never desired to have a son after being blessed by four daughters.

Two of her daughters are married and the senior actress often shares heartwarming pictures with her son-in-laws as well.

The birth of a daughter is constantly stigmatized in our society, and producing a son is typically seen as crucial for a lady to escape social insults. Shagufta expressed her deep gratitude to Allah for her blessings. She never even prayed for a male despite the fact that her daughters are capable and excellent.

While talking to the host the actress said that her daughters are capable and competitive. They’re well educated and so compassionate that she never felt the need to have a son.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrKRhU1061Q&t=71s

Negating the stigma and breaking the son stereotype, Shagufta Ejaz is proud to be a mother of four daughters and has no regrets about not having a son. She even has a great chemistry with her two son in laws.

September 10, 2022
Khan pleads innocence: ‘Threats to female judge don’t fall under terrorism’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that the threats he issued to a female judge in a rally do not fall under “terrorism” and the case should be dismissed as he is “innocent”.

“I am the chairman of Tehreek-e-Insaf, I have been the prime minister of Pakistan. This government tortured [my aide] Shahbaz Gill due to political opposition. The report filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) proved that Gill had been tortured,” Khan told the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), calling for the dismissal of his case in the written reply submitted.

Khan was asked to appear before the JIT at the Margalla Police Station on Friday but he did not show up.

Last week, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad extended the interim bail of the PTI chairman till September 12 in the terrorism case related to his controversial remarks about the female sessions court judge Zeba Chaudhry and the capital city police.

The court directed the ex-prime minister to submit Rs100,000 as surety against the bail.

A case was registered against the former prime minister under the Anti-Terrorism Act for threatening the additional sessions judge and senior police officers of the Islamabad Police during a public rally.

September 10, 2022
Naseem Shah breaks silence on romantic reel with Urvashi Rautela

Pakistani cricketer Naseem Shah has broken his silence on the transnational attention for his performance during the Asia Cup 2022 series.

Naseem has reacted to the attention that he is garnering from Bollywood divas, “People keep sending me videos, but I have no idea about all this and I don’t know who Urvashi is. Whoever comes to the ground to watch me play, thanks to them. It’s good for me if people like me and come to the stadium to see me play, as I haven’t come from other worlds. Thank God people like me.”

In the video she posted on her Instagram story, Rautela could be seen grinning and blushing. Coincidentally, Naseem was captured smiling during the same Pakistan vs. India game; as a result, a fan combined the moments in an edited video clip.

Many people praised the star pacer including Indian actress Urvashi Rautela. Urvashi shocked fans by sharing a romantic fan edit featuring her and Naseem with Atif Aslam’s song in the background.

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A post shared by Pakistani.Celebrities (@pakistani.celebrities)

Later another Indian celebrity Surbhi Jyoti praised Naseem.

Taking to Twitter, Jyoti said while referring to the cricketer, “Pakistan has definitely got a gem.”

September 10, 2022
‘Matter of justice’: UN chief appeals to the world to support Pakistan

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday, September 10, urged the international community to support disaster-hit Pakistan as the country needed massive financial help to overcome post-flood crises.

“It is not a matter of generosity, but a matter of justice,” he said reiterating the United Nation’s commitment, strong support, and solidarity with the flood-affected populace of Pakistan.

Guterres said that huge damages and losses were caused to human lives and properties. The Secretary General further said that the UN absolutely supported Pakistan and requested richer nations to generously help the country so that it could face the future challenges of climatic changes and save its people.

He stressed that the international community must realize the serious impacts of greenhouse emissions as nature was striking back in the form of natural calamities.

He continued that greenhouse gases had accelerated climatic changes and that nations with larger greenhouse emission footprints must understand these issues. Citing scientific estimates, the UN secretary-general emphasized that now was the right time to reduce greenhouse emissions.

He said it was also a fact that they were living in a climatic changing era and have to make efforts to rebuild communities and to enable countries to resist and face future disasters that could be wrought by the natural calamities.

Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, provincial ministers, and the relevant authorities were present on the occasion.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah gave a detailed briefing on the damages and loss of lives in the province.

He said during the current monsoon season, different districts of the province had received unusual rainfall never witnessed in the past.

He said that 30 districts of the province were affected, displacing about 12 million, adding that a total of 578 people lost their lives. A total of 3 million houses were destroyed and crops grown on an area of about 3.3 million acres were damaged while 500,000 livestock had been swept away.

Earlier, the prime minister along with the UN secretary general and the federal ministers took an aerial review of the flood-affected areas of the Sindh province.

September 10, 2022
‘Wrinkle-free skin’: Humayun Saeed reveals his secret of looking young and fit at 50

Superstar Humayun Saeed has spilled some beans on his fitness and young skin in a recent interview with ‘FWhy Podcast’. The Dillagi star shared the trick to his youthful and wrinkle-free skin.

He said, “I was working with an actress in London (The Crown) and there she asked me that what do you do with your face as you have a wrinkle free skin as she was younger than me and she had wrinkles on her face. According to me, because I eat a lot and don’t prefer dieting a lot maybe this is one of the reason behind a fresh face that I take a proper diet.”

The Bin Roye hero added, “I do jogging, but I prefer cardio over weight lifting which surely improves my health. I’m not in favor of heavy weight lifting at all.”

“When we were at a phase where I had to make tough decisions, I started crying, thinking about what will happen if she ends up marrying someone else,” he said. “My parents were also not in favour, they thought it was not the right age for me but we stood our ground. And it proved to be the right decision.” “The strong woman that she is, she guided me through life and work,” Saeed gushed about the partner.

Later in the discussion, the actor recalled Samina initially being insecure about his work and on-screen romance with female actors, adding that she later befriended most of them and got along well.

“She realised they were all nice people. All of her worries went away. She’d bring food to the sets and talk to everyone,” he joked. Moreover, Saeed addressed an old conjecture of being involved with another girl while having Samina in his life. He clarified, “There wasn’t another girl in a way that I didn’t officially go on dates with her or something.”

He added, “We met once or twice at a wedding or something and we’d talk on calls. I had contacted her to meet and I wanted to tell her about Samina only but Samina found out and gave me an ultimatum. That was it.”

For those unversed, Saeed married producer Samina in 1995, and the two are one of the top power couples in the industry.

During the conversation, Saeed also revealed that he had no plans for marriage until he met Samina and decided to take the plunge, despite the apprehensions from his family and friends.

On the work front, Humayun recently delivered a blockbuster film London Nahi Jaunga co-starring Mehwish Hayat and Kubra Khan.

September 10, 2022
Polio virus detected in Lahore, three other cities

Pakistan’s National Polio Laboratory in Islamabad has found Type 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) in environmental samples collected from different cities. The presence of the virus was confirmed in samples collected from Bannu, Peshawar and Swat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Lahore in Punjab.

Talking about it, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination said, “This is the seventh positive environmental sample from Bannu, third from Peshawar and Lahore each, and second from Swat this year.”

Earlier in August, Pakistan’s federal authorities confirmed the presence of the poliovirus in seven cities after samples were collected from various cities in the country.
Lahore and Islamabad were declared polio-free in April 2021.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio has not yet been eradicated. To formally eradicate the disease, a nation must be polio-free for three consecutive years. Nigeria was declared free from wild polio in August 2020.

However, polio has been rearing its head up in countries where the virus was eradicated decades ago. In June, a 20-year-old man in New York was afflicted with the virus, resulting in paralysis. The strain that affected him was the kind that is found in vaccines, and then behaves like a wild version of the virus. The man had not been vaccinated against the disease, however, more worryingly, he had not traveled internationally.

The same strain of the virus has been detected in sewer samples in Jerusalem. Israel has recorded its first polio case in 30 years. The United Kingdom too has found the same strain in London.

Polio is a potentially fatal disease that can cause paralysis if it spreads to the spinal cord. One in 10 polio fever afflicted patients die. The disease is more severe in children than it is in adults.

September 10, 2022
Weekly inflation decreases only 0.58 per cent from record high

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ending September 8, 2022, decreased by 0.58 per cent as a result of falling food prices.

In comparison to the previous week’s record high of 45.50 per cent, the yearly trend shows an increase of 42.70 per cent.

The year-on-year increase was driven by an increase in prices of tomatoes (144.25 per cent), diesel (114.08 per cent), petrol (98.73 per cent), pulse masoor (76.34 per cent), cooking oil-5 liter (67.99 per cent), mustard oil (66.53 per cent), LPG (64.98 per cent), washing soap (64.50 per cent), electricity for Q1 (63.03 per cent), vegetable ghee-2.5 kg (62.53 per cent), pulse gram (61.02 per cent), onions (59.97 per cent) and vegetable ghee-1 kg (58.19 per cent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of chilies powder (43.42 per cent), sugar (18.07 per cent) and gur (2.08 per cent).

As per the latest data, the SPI went down from 222.85 per cent during the week ended September 1^st 2022 to 221.55 per cent during this week.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 items (50.98 per cent) increased, nine items (17.65 per cent) decreased and 16 (31.37 per cent) items remained stable.

The items which got more expensive include LPG (10.66 per cent), wheat flour (4.15 per cent), eggs (3.96 per cent), bread (3.27 per cent), pulse moong (2.74 per cent), curd (2.72 per cent), tea-lipton (2.50 per cent), pulse gram (1.65 per cent), chicken (1.58 per cent), milk fresh (1.57 per cent), fire wood (1.54 per cent), potatoes (1.02 per cent), and others

A reduction was observed in the prices of onions (41.99 per cent), tomatoes (8.11 per cent), bananas (2.51 per cent), pulse masoor (1.37 per cent), vegetable ghee-1 kg (0.55 per cent), cooking oil-5 liter (0.33 per cent), mustard oil (0.16 per cent) and vegetable ghee-2.5 kg and sugar (0.11 per cent) each.

Highest week-on-week decrease

Onions: 41.99 per cent

Tomatoes: 8.11 per cent

Bananas: 2.51 per cent

Pulse Masoor: 1.37 per cent

Vegetable ghee (1kg): 0.55 per cent

Highest week-on-week increase

LPG: 10.66 per cent

Flour: 4.15 per cent

Eggs: 3.96 per cent

Bread: 3.27 per cent

Pulse Moong: 2.74 per cent

Highest year-on-year increase

Tomatoes: 144.25 per cent

Diesel: 114.08 per cent

Petrol: 98.73 per cent

Pulse Masoor: 76.34 per cent

Cooking oil (5 litre): 67.99 per cent

September 10, 2022
Pakistan continues to face liquidity crunch despite IMF programme’s revival

Even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme has resumed after a seven-month hiatus, Pakistan continues to struggle with a major dollar liquidity crunch as the catastrophic floods have exacerbated the macroeconomic conditions.

According to Geo, since many politicians and economists advocated for Pakistan to ask the IMF for a Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) or Natural Calamity Response-related Funding Facility, the Pakistani government has not yet submitted a new request in anticipation of the Washington-based international lender’s unenthusiastic response.

After being put on hold in February 2022 by the previous PTI-led government’s provision of unfunded fuel and energy subsidies, the IMF project under $6.5 billion was restarted in late August.

Since then, there has been pressure on Pakistan’s currency; nevertheless, the recent devastating floods have hurt the economy, contrary to what experts had anticipated would happen with the restart of the IMF programme.

The rupee has dropped 9 per cent against the US dollar in recent days due to intense pressure on the currency rate.

According to reports, the issue has gotten worse as demand for imports has multiplied and there are not enough dollars in the country. Pakistan’s macroeconomic risks are not going away without greater dollar inflows.

The early estimates of damages have now increased to almost $18 billion as a result of the severe flooding, with Pakistan’s agriculture industry taking the biggest hit.

The worst agricultural performance will put pressure on rising import demand for commodities, and if Pakistan cannot attract the appropriate levels of dollar inflows, food shortages may occur in the ongoing financial year.

In contrast to the projected aim of 3.9 per cent for the current fiscal year 2022–2023, the agriculture growth could remain zero or perhaps turn negative.

September 10, 2022