Pakistan men’s team, including captain Babar Azam, Senior Manager Wahab Riaz, Shaheen Afridi and others met the Pakistan women’s team to offer them encouragement in England tour.
Pakistan’s men’s team is also in Leeds to play a four-match T20 series against England. The first T20 match of the series will be played at Headingley, Leeds on May 22.
England women’s cricket team defeated Pakistan by 34 runs and won the 3-match series by 3-0.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, and his foreign minister Hossein Amr-Abdollahian, have been killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday night in the north of the country near the border with Azerbaijan, State Television has confirmed.
Rescue teams finally reached the site of the helicopter crash where dense fog and adverse weather conditions impeded rescue and recovery efforts.
“Upon finding the helicopter, there was no sign of the helicopter passengers being alive as of yet,” state TV reported. The helicopter carrying the head of the state crashed during President Raisi’s return flight to Tabriz after he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev inaugurated the Qiz Qalasi Dam on the border.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged calm and assured his people that there would be no disruption in the country’s governance.
Vice President Mohammad Mokhbar is expected to become the new President now, Al Jazeera has reported.
Raisi became president in 2021.
The federal government has announced plans to revise Pakistan’s solar net metering policy, aiming to reduce losses within the power sector. This announcement was made by Federal Minister for Energy, Sardar Awais Ahmad Leghari, during a press conference where he highlighted current issues surrounding solar net metering.
Minister Leghari noted that citizens installing solar systems initially expected to recover their investments within three years. However, due to recent advancements, this period has been significantly reduced to just one to one and a half years. This rapid return on investment underscores the growing efficiency and popularity of solar energy solutions.
The PML-N-led government had initially promoted solarisation in 2017, resulting in 113,000 connections currently operating under the net metering scheme. Leghari reassured that while the government is open to revising the solar net metering policy if necessary, it remains committed to sustaining the programme.
“We will take effective measures to eliminate power theft and thereby reduce the financial burden on the national exchequer,” he stated, emphasising the government’s dual focus on promoting clean energy and maintaining economic stability.
The government is also assessing the impacts of the increasing trend towards rooftop-generated electricity. Minister Leghari explained that this assessment would help determine the rate of return on investments in solar equipment and understand the broader implications of this shift.
He highlighted the need to analyse whether the growing reliance on solar panels is leading to inflated electricity prices for local households. “We will be involved in analysing and balancing the solar net metering,” Leghari added, indicating a comprehensive approach to ensuring the policy benefits all stakeholders.
Net metering, a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid, remains a pivotal aspect of the government’s strategy to encourage renewable energy adoption. This revision aims to optimise its benefits and address emerging challenges within the power sector.
The ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) in India is now heading towards its end where the win of Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday left Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma emotional.
In the match played on Saturday was Royal Challengers Bangalore’s last chance to go to the play-off stage. Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 27 runs to secure the last position in the play-off stage.
Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma couldn’t contain their emotions as the result of the match came and both were seen emotional in various videos.
Fans of Virat Kohli’s team Royal Challengers Bangalore were also very happy on this occasion.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s photos and videos are also being liked by their fans on social media.
LGBTQ groups protested Friday outside Peru’s health ministry after the government issued a decree listing transsexualism as a mental disorder.
“It is a decree that takes us back three decades,” said Jorge Apolaya, spokesman of the Collective Pride March, a Lima-based rights group.
“We cannot live in a country where we are considered sick,” he said.
Transgender people are those who reject the sex they were assigned at birth. Some opt for surgical or medical intervention.
The government on May 10 updated its list of insurable health conditions — which since 2021 has offered benefits for mental health treatment — to include services for transgender people.
In the decree, the health ministry describes the condition as a “mental disorder” — an obsolete term long officially abandoned by the World Health Organization.
More than 200 activists gathered outside the health ministry to demand the revocation of the decree on Friday — the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
“It is a regulation that violates us … they are positioning us as sick people, as if we have a problem,” said 25-year-old Afrika Nakamura.
With slogans like “It’s not a disease, it’s diversity!” and “We are trans and we are not sick,” the protesters blocked the busy avenue in front of the ministry for a few hours.
No clashes with police were reported.
“We demand the repeal of this transphobic and violent decree, which goes against our trans identities in Peru,” activist Gianna Camacho of the Coordinacion Nacional LGTBIQ+ told AFP.
“We are not mentally ill and we do not suffer from any mental disorder,” she added.
The government said it would not scrap the decree.
Health ministry official Carlos Alvadrado told AFP that doing so would “remove the right to care.”
The ministry has previously insisted it does not consider gender diversity as an illness, and in a statement expressed “our respect for gender identities and our rejection of the stigmatization of sexual diversity.”
It said the decree was meant merely to extend mental health coverage “for the full exercise of the right to health and well-being” of those who want or need it.
An article on the website of Human Rights Watch describes the decree as “profoundly regressive” in a country that does not allow same-sex marriage nor for transgender people to change their identity documents.
For Percy Mayta, a medical doctor and activist, “pathologizing” transgender people “opens the door to… conversion therapy” — which UN bodies have equated to torture and is not illegal in Peru.
In its press statement, Peru’s health ministry underlined that “the sexual orientation and gender identity of a person does not in itself constitute a physical or mental health disorder and therefore should not be subjected to medical treatment or care or so-called reconversion therapies.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that it is in discussions with Pakistan regarding a 24th bailout programme under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), signalling a significant development in the country’s ongoing economic negotiations.
IMF Communication Director Julie Kozack, during a press briefing, refrained from commenting directly on the status of a staff-level agreement, suggesting that the talks are still in progress.
She stated, “A mission team led by Nathan Porter is currently meeting with Pakistani authorities to discuss the next phase of our engagement.”
Kozack elaborated on recent IMF activities in Pakistan, noting that on April 29th, the IMF Executive Board completed the second review of the stand-by arrangement for Pakistan, enabling a disbursement of approximately $1.1 billion.
“The completion of this review reflects the authorities’ robust policy efforts during the stand-by arrangement, which contributed to stabilising the economy,” she explained.
Addressing further queries, Kozack indicated that the mission is actively working on the ground and that their findings would be communicated upon the mission’s completion.
Pakistan is seeking a substantial $6 to $8 billion bailout package from the IMF over a three- to four-year period to address its financial difficulties.
The IMF’s technical team arrived in Pakistan on May 10 to engage in discussions regarding the new loan programme and budget preparations.
These talks come at a critical time for Pakistan, which is grappling with considerable economic challenges, including the failure of a tax amnesty scheme proposed by the IMF. The outcome of these negotiations will be pivotal in determining Pakistan’s economic stability and future financial policies.
A napkin inscribed with the first contract of Argentina’s famous footballer Lionel Messi has been auctioned for a whopping $965,000 (approximate 26 crore and 70 lakh rupees), with bidding starting at $326,835 approximate 9 crore and 5 lakh).
Messi signed his first contract with Barcelona on December 14, 2000 when he was just 13 years old.
The napkin, inscribed in blue ink, is also signed by then-Barcelona director Carles Rexach, the club’s transfer adviser Josef Manguela and Messi’s first agent Oracho Guijoli.
The napkin was put up for online auction by London-based auction house Bonmus. Messi made his first team debut at the age of 16 and scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for the Barcelona club.
Proud agent Guijoli said in an interview, “when I was invited by Barcelona director Carles Rexach to sign the contract, due to lack of time, instead of signing a contract formally, we hurriedly wrote the contract on a napkin signed by all parties.”
Messi holds the record of scoring most goals ever in La Liga (474), the UEFA Super Cup (3) and Supercopa de España (14). He also holds the record for the most assists in football history (372).
Actor Shahroz Sabzwari has credited his newfound style to his wife, Sadaf Kanwal.
Sabwari recently participated in the HUM Style Award where he received the Best Style Hero of the Year award.When a journalist asked Sadaf if she was surprised when Shahroz Sabzwari was nominated for Style Hero of the Year,
she replied: “I wasn’t surprised; I hoped he would win the award and I’m very happy about it.”Meanwhile, Shehroz further said ,”I wasn’t stylish at all until my wife came into my life. She taught me how to dress and style myself. I owe my stylish looks to her.”
Muneeb Butt, a beloved actor in Pakistan known for his versatile roles and self-made journey, recently had a memorable meeting with renowned Bollywood star Manoj Bajpayee in Dubai.
The younger actor expressed his long-standing admiration for Manoj’s craft and his desire to meet him. Manoj responded warmly, and they both had a pleasant interaction.
Here is the meetup video :
Senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Rana Sanaullah has stated that Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Ali Amin Gandapur considers himself a “Tees Mar Khan but he fires only empty shots.”
Talking to the media in Lahore, Prime Minister’s advisor Rana Sanaullah said that if it (PTI) wants to talk to the establishment or the establishment wants to talk to them, then absolutely do it.
The PML-N stalwart said that when the establishment did not support Imran, he said that it is Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq. “Their dispute is that the establishment should interfere in politics and the system of the country,” he opined.
Talking about the founder PTI, the leader of Muslim League-N said that Imran Khan is getting everything in jail.