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  • More Afghans killed from American firing than blast at Kabul airport: Reports

    More Afghans killed from American firing than blast at Kabul airport: Reports

    A recent report by BBC has revealed that a significant number of those killed during the attack on Kabul airport were shot dead by the US forces in the panic after the blast.

    The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan (ISIL/ISIS-K) group’s suicide attack on the Kabul airport on Thursday killed around 175 Afghans and 13 United States (US) troops.

    Journalist Secunder Kermani of BBC, sharing his special report on Twitter, wrote: “Many we spoke to, including eyewitnesses, said significant numbers of those killed were shot dead by US forces in the panic after the blast.”

    https://twitter.com/SecKermani/status/1431517279859224579

    In the video, an eyewitness said, “It was doomsday for us, I saw American soldiers and some Turkish soldiers, the fire came from the bridges, and towers from the soldiers.”

    Another eyewitness holding the identity card of his relative said, “He has served the US army for years, he wasn’t killed by Taliban, he wasn’t killed ISIS. He died from the shelling.”

    “How can you be so sure?” questioned Secunder.

    “Because of the bullet, it went right through his neck, he doesn’t have an injury.”

    American forces launched a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday targeting a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to attack the airport, US officials said, as the US nears the end of its military presence in the city.

    The strike is the second carried out by US forces in Afghanistan since a militant Islamic State (IS) group’s suicide bomber struck the airport on Thursday.

    US President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul and was informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the statement said.

    “National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain have briefed the President on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport,” it added.

    As many as five rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a US official told Reuters earlier.

    US and allied forces are hurrying to evacuate their remaining citizens and at-risk Afghans before completing their own withdrawal by Tuesday to meet a deadline agreed between the Taliban and Washington.

  • Newlywed couple sends Rs 39,829 bill to guests for not showing up at their reception

    Newlywed couple sends Rs 39,829 bill to guests for not showing up at their reception

    A newly married couple from Chicago sent a bill of $240 (Rs Rs 39,829) to the guests who didn’t attend their reception dinner.

    The invoice was shared on social media by a user named Philip Lewis, a senior front page editor at the Huffington Post, on Wednesday.

    The invoice states that the wedding reception took place at the Royalton Negril, a resort in Negril, Jamaica.

    The reason for sending the bill was listed as: “No call, no show guest.” The bill also mentioned the “Unit Price” of $120 per wedding guest and, since there were two guests who did not show up, the total cost was $240 (Rs 39,829).

    Read More: Newlywed couple gets five litres of petrol as wedding gift

    The receipt further stated, “This invoice is being sent to you because you confirmed seat(s) at the wedding reception during the Final Headcount. The amount above is the cost of your individual seats. Because you didn’t call or give us proper notice that you wouldn’t be in attendance, this amount is what you owe us for paying your seat(s) in advance. You can pay via Zelle or PayPal. Please reach out to us and let us know which method of payment works for you. Thank you!”

  • UAE to resume tourist visas

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that it will resume issuing tourist visas to vaccinated travelers from August 30 (today). UAE authorities have said that applications for tourist visas will be open to people from all countries, provided that they are fully vaccinated with one of the WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines.

    The WHO-approved vaccines include AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

    “The decision applies to citizens of all countries, including those arriving from the previously banned countries. Arriving passengers on tourist visa must take mandatory rapid PCR test at the airport. The previous rules for unvaccinated, including exempted categories, remain in place,” Emirates News Agency has reported.

    On August 5, the UAE lifted a ban on transit passenger traffic from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and other countries.

  • Netizens slam Amna Ilyas for kicking a man’s head, Celebrities cheer her

    Netizens slam Amna Ilyas for kicking a man’s head, Celebrities cheer her

    Actor Amna Ilyas accidently kicked the skull of a boy while attempting to hit the apple on his head in a video uploaded by her on her Instagram handle.

    Fellow celebrities Minal Khan, Aiman Khan, Azfar Rehman and Saim Ali cheered the Baaji star by commenting positive statements.

    Many netizens called her out for disrespecting food and hurting the man in the video, despite her adding a disclaimer.

    On the work front, Amna is currently featuring in Ik Jhoota lafz Mohabbat opposite Junaid Khan and Emmad Irrfani.

  • Man hires secretary to answer messages on family WhatsApp group

    Man hires secretary to answer messages on family WhatsApp group

    A man named Zain Yaqub came up with a hilarious yet much-needed plan, by hiring a man named Ian as his ‘secretary’ to answer all the messages on the family WhatsApp group on his behalf, as per Times Now News.

    His family soon came to know about this and decided to play along. Even a video was shared on TikTok by Zain’s brother, showed the chats where Ian answered.

    “Sorry this is Ian, I will relay this message to Zain and get back to you when he responds,” was the secretary’s standard message to the family. Upon this, the father asked him to send Zain his love.

    The video went viral on TikTok, where Zain’s father confirmed that he has met Ian over a Zoom call as well. A user actually suggested, “Start inviting the secretary to family events instead of Zain.”

    Who likes such groups where thousands of good morning messages and memes keep coming in? This is a great solution for a desi household.

  • ‘Maa ki godh se kalma sunte sunte ‘Nach Punjaban’ ka safar kese kia?’: Nadia Hussain blasts Abrar-ul-Haq

    ‘Maa ki godh se kalma sunte sunte ‘Nach Punjaban’ ka safar kese kia?’: Nadia Hussain blasts Abrar-ul-Haq

    Earlier this week, the singer-turned politician Abrar-ul-Haq criticized young mothers for giving gadgets in children’s hands and ignoring their nurturing while singing Baby Shark at a convention to mark Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) three years performance.

    He said that when we were kids, ours mothers used to recite Kalima to us and nowadays, young mothers give mobile phones to their children, which play Baby Shark.

    Jalan star Nadia Hussain has slammed the Nach Punjaban singer for his comments on modern day mothers.

    On the work front, Nadia can be seen currently on Hum TV’s Yun Toh Pyar Hai Bohat co-starring Javed Sheikh and Affan Waheed.

  • Watch: Indian anchor loses cool on show, becomes a global meme

    Watch: Indian anchor loses cool on show, becomes a global meme

    In a video that resurfaced on social media, an Indian journalist, Deepak Chaurasia, of the News Nation TV is seen constantly shouting at one of his panelists.

    The anchorperson is seen shouting at the top of his voice, dominating one of the panelists and not giving him a chance to answer back.

    The journalist loses his cool because the panelist is from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

    The journalist can be seen getting hysterical in his prime time show ‘Khoj Khabar’. Ignoring cameras, Chaurasia got up from his seat and walked towards JNU Students Union leader Sunny Dhiman. Before Dhiman could understand anything, Chaurasia started shouting at him. “Aap log (JNU students) jatein JNU hai, taxpayer ka khaatay hai aur gaatay Pakistan ka (You students go to JNU on taxpayer’s money but sing praises of Pakistan).”

    “Apko sawaal poochna chahiye” (You should ask questions), Dhiman shouted back in response.

    Disregarding his answer, Chaurasia jabbed his finger at Dhiman, “Aap jaise log jo yeh mansikta phela rahein hai, aap jaise desh drohion ne ikhata kiya Pulwama mein” (You are responsible for spreading this mentality, all anti-nationals had gathered in Pulwama).

    Twitterati reacted to the Indian journalists’ way of communication and schooled him on basic ethics, who soon became a laughingstock among netizens.

    BBC journalist Stephen Sackur took to Twitter and wrote, “I watched this and realised I’ve been doing @BBCHARDtalk all wrong…”

    Research Fellow, South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, Jeff Smith wrote, “My goodness. If a TV anchor ever jabbed his finger in my face like that he’d wake up in a different time zone.”

    Journalist Mehdi Hasan, mocking the resurfaced video, tweeted, “Watch the faces of the other three panelists. Amazing.”

    A Twitter user wrote, “It happens nowhere in the world except India.”

    Another person retweeting the video wrote, “This is truly a disease spreading in India.”

    A Twitter user mocking the debate wrote, “Comedy show Hai yeee? [Is this a comedy show?]”

    Seeing the Indian journalist shout on television, a Twitter user wrote, “They forgot to take blood pressure (BP) tablets??”

    Tagging the anchorperson one Twitter user wrote, “Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument”

  • India suffers defeat by innings and 76 runs in Headingley

    India suffers defeat by innings and 76 runs in Headingley

    India suffered a humiliating defeat by an innings and 76 runs in the third Test match against England at the Headingley Cricket ground on Saturday.

    “Basically down to scoreboard pressure. Always up against it when you get out for under 80, and the opposition puts up such a big score. But we did well to stay in the game yesterday, fight back as much as we could, and gave ourselves a chance. But the pressure today was outstanding from the England bowlers and eventually they got the results they wanted,” said Virat Kohli in the post-match presentation ceremony.

    India were skittled out of 278 after resuming the day at 215/2. In what was expected to be easy batting conditions on a sunny day at Headingley, England bowlers were ruthless in their approach and finished the match in the first session of the day to jump to 14 points on the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 table.

    With a clinical five-for England bowler Ollie Robinson bagged Player of the Match Award, taking seven wickets overall.

    With the series delicately poised at 1-1, the action now moves to The Oval in London for the fourth Test.

  • Stop moral policing

    Stop moral policing

    One of the favourite pastimes in Pakistan seems to be moral policing. We really don’t believe in the principle of ‘live and let live’. No, we have to interfere in others’ lives, we have to comment on others’ life choices, we have to judge everyone around us and we have to somehow make life difficult for others. 

    Just recently, we saw social media outrage regarding a photoshoot that was deemed ‘obscene’ by senior journalist Ansar Abbasi. Mr Abbasi somehow keeps finding everything ‘obscene’ under the sun, be it a video, an advertisement, a YouTube show, a photoshoot — you name it and Mr Abbasi has seen it. Mr Abbasi tweeted to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Islamabad that the couple must be arrested as they “displayed extreme obscenity in public in the federal capital”. As if on cue, DC Islamabad asked people to share any information they had about the couple and/or photoshoot. Both of them did not think for a second how they could be endangering the lives of the young girl and boy in the pictures. We live in a society that believes in mob justice. But our senior journalists and officials really don’t care, it seems. 

    The Islamabad police booked the couple for an indecent photoshoot under Section 294 of the PPC, which makes “engaging in obscene acts, or singing, reciting or uttering obscene songs, ballads or words, in or near any public place, to the annoyance of others, an offense punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both”. The law is so vague that anything can be deemed obscene as there is no clear definition of the word in PPC. And this is why it was used against the kids in the photoshoot.

    At around 5:30am on Tuesday (August 24), 10 police officers — one SHO, one ASI, and eight constables — reportedly arrived at the house of the boy, Zulfi, in Lahore to arrest him. They had come to arrest him from Islamabad. The boy’s lawyers got a protective bail from a court so he could not be arrested. But look at the priorities of our state that 10 police officials were sent to Lahore to arrest someone for a photoshoot. A photoshoot!!! Let that sink in. Zulfi is not a terrorist, not a murderer, not a rapist, not a child abuser, but an activist. And the police wanted to arrest him for a photoshoot. We must thank the Islamabad Police for making us feel so safe.

    A woman was assaulted by hundreds of men at Minar-e-Pakistan and the police did not come to help her despite calls, another woman was forcibly kissed by a man while sitting in a rickshaw but nobody helped her, but one photoshoot and one tweet by a vigilante journalist and our police can swiftly be seen in action. 
    We hope that our officials would stop moral policing and let people express themselves however they want. There is already so much intolerance around us. Do not make this society more suffocating than it already is.

  • After Sonya Hussyn, Yasra Rizvi hits out at Lux Style awards

    Actor Yasra Rizvi took to her Instagram stories to hit out at the Lux Style awards post they announced their nominations for the forthcoming ceremony.

    “Lux is basically a beauty soap brand like any other business their primary focus must be to sell more products and maximize profit. no?” questioned the Malika-e-Aliya diva.

    “Hence like any other business they can use art to serve this very purpose but to serve art is probably not the purpose,” the Churail actor added.

    Earlier, Sonya Hussyn called out Lux Style Awards’ jury for not nominating her drama Saraab in any of the categories.

    Yesterday, the nominations for the 20th edition of Lux Style Awards (LSA) were announced. This year, the categories for feature films have been omitted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.