Tag: trending

  • ‘Spineless’: Twitter disgusted after Ranveer Singh pays tribute to Johnny Depp at film festival

    ‘Spineless’: Twitter disgusted after Ranveer Singh pays tribute to Johnny Depp at film festival

    Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh has been criticised on social media after a video of him praising controversial actor Johnny Depp went viral. The ‘Rocky And Rani’ actor was honoured with ‘The Red Sea: Honoree Award’, and in his acceptance speech the actor chose to praise Johnny by calling him his “screen idol.”

    “I want to go off-script for a moment here. One of my screen idols is in the house, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Johnny Depp. My good sir, I’ve followed your work since Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. What an honour to be receiving this in your presence. Thank you for everything that you’ve unknowingly taught me about the craft, sir. Master of transformation, versatility, something that inspired by you.”

    Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard were embroiled in a public defamation case in 2022. The jury sided mostly with Depp, finding Heard guilty of defamation, penalising her for $10 million agile Depp was told to pay her $1 million.

    X (formerly Twitter) users were outraged at Ranveer, mostly regarded as one of the non-toxic male leads in Bollywood, paying homage to a Depp.

    “embarrassing..these celebs esp from bw don’t stand up for anything and when given a public platform they would commit atrocities like praising a straight up abuser. just accept ur award and leave like i am sure he doesn’t give a fuck. ranveer would ass-lick just abt anybody.”

    “Powerful men side with each other and get hailed for low effort and unimpressive “acts of love”. Idealizing a rapist and abuser reflects a lot on you. It is easier to speak two lines praising your super rich and successful wife but hard to stand up for other women/survivors,” another user wrote.

  • Mehdi Hasan’s show cancelled by MSNBC

    Mehdi Hasan’s show cancelled by MSNBC

    The prime-time show anchored by Mehdi Hasan, one of the strongest advocates of the Palestinian cause on American news networks, has been cancelled by MSNBC network.

    The decision was first reported by the news website Semafor on Thursday. The host of The Mehdi Hasan Show is a British-born journalist known for his hard-hitting interviews. He is a rare critic of Israeli policies on USA cable news and has a huge fanbase. The show was broadcast live on Sundays at 8 pm US Eastern time and covered national politics, current affairs, and global news.

    Mehdi Hasan will instead now become an on-camera analyst and guest host. His weekend show will be replaced by an additional hour of Ayman, the news program hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin.

    Hasan was recently very vocal about Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Earlier in November, he interviewed Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former ambassador to the UK, questioning him firmly on the high Palestinian civilian death toll, the Palestinian children that were killed by the Israeli military, and related matters.
    Hasan asked: “They’re people your government has killed. You’ve killed children. You accept that, right? Or do you deny that?”
    To which Regev replied: “No, I do not.”

    MSNBC President Rashida Jones said the reshuffle aims to “better position” the network as it heads into the 2024 US elections.

    Before what is reportedly the official cancellation of the Mehdi Hasan show, MSNBC faced criticism for temporarily taking Muslim anchors off air during the war in Gaza. The current decision has also attracted a lot of criticism.

    Noura Erakat slammed the network by saying “He should be amplified, not shut down.”

    Columnist and Journalist Owen Jones praised Mehdi’s interviewing skills and said, “Look what’s happening: the few mainstream voices who challenge Israel’s mass slaughter of Gaza are under attack.”

    US journalist David Sirota noted that Hasan has reported critically on both Republicans and Democrats.
    “Canceling him is another step in the deliberate homogenization of news content into pure red-vs-blue infotainment,” Sirota wrote on X.

    Host and author Charlie Skyes appreciated Mehdi and called him the most gifted interviewer in US Media.

    Kenneth Roth, former director of Human Right’s Watch proclaimed the decision as outrageous.

    Race theorist and author Tim Wise lambasted MSNBC that the network should be ashamed of its decision.

  • Rifts in PTI over ‘selection’ of new Chairman

    Rifts in PTI over ‘selection’ of new Chairman

    In a dramatic turn of events within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founding member and dissenter Akbar S. Babar has raised concerns over the nomination of Barrister Gohar Ali Khan for the party chairman’s position.

    Accusing the move of being more of a “selection than an election,” Babar, who previously filed the foreign funding case against the PTI, expressed doubts about the transparency and credibility of the intra-party election process.

    He said, “This must be a first that elections for the party’s central leadership have been announced without its electoral college in place as the electoral college of PTI’s central leadership is an elected provincial leadership which does not exist.”

    According to Babar, the prolonged intra-party election process, initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic with a one-year extension granted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), has failed to live up to the party’s commitment to transparent and fair elections.

    Babar proposed that the Commission should appoint ‘obervers’ to monitor the PTI intra-party elections as it is already discussing the matter.

    Babar, who served as the party’s central information secretary and vice-president in the past, claimed that it appears that the PTI has learnt hardly any lesson from its past history of holding rigged intra-party elections.

    The decision to nominate Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, described as a ‘newcomer,’ has sparked internal discord within the party.

    Some party leaders drew parallels between this nomination and the controversial appointment of Usman Buzdar as the Punjab chief minister, a move that faced criticism for its perceived lack of merit.

    The selection of Barrister Gohar Ali Khan over other loyalists within the party, such as Ali Muhammad Khan, Senator Humayun Mohmand, and Advocate Hamid Khan, has raised eyebrows among insiders.

    One party leader, speaking anonymously to Dawn, voiced apprehensions about Khan’s association with PPP leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, considering it an unwise move given the sensitive nature of the party chairman position.

    “Unfortunately, Imran Khan has again done an experiment, just like Usman Buzdar, who left him when his difficult time started. The position of the party chairman is very sensitive and it could be used against the party,” he feared.

  • How many seats will be in the National Assembly in upcoming elections?

    How many seats will be in the National Assembly in upcoming elections?

    Amid rumours of delay in the elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has released the final list of delimitation of constituencies in the national and four provincial assemblies.

    This progress paves the roads for the election schedule, which is more likely to be announced in the first week of December, as per the electoral body.

    Previously, the ECP had said that the final list of delimitations for constituencies would be published on December 15, but it was later revised to November 30.

    According to the notification issued by the ECP, the National Assembly (NA) has a total of 266 seats; 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities.

    Balochistan has a total of 20 NA seats, including 16 general and four reserved seats for women; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 45 general NA seats and 10 reserved seats for women; Sindh has a total of 75 NA seats, of which 61 are general and the remaining 14 are reserved for women.

    On the other hand, considering population, Punjab is a big province, and it has 141 NA seats, of which 32 are reserved for women. The federal capital has three general NA seats, with no reserved seat for women.

    Article 106 pertains to the constituencies of the four provincial legislatures. According to this article, Balochistan comprises 51 general seats, with 11 reserved for women and three for non-Muslims, making a total of 65 seats.

    In the case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are 115 general seats, along with 26 reserved for women and four for non-Muslims, bringing the total number of seats in the legislature to 145.

  • Harassment of Pakhtuns in Punjab unacceptable; Aimal Wali Khan warns government

    Harassment of Pakhtuns in Punjab unacceptable; Aimal Wali Khan warns government

    Aimal Wali Khan, the President of Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has accused Punjab authorities of engaging in harassment against Pakhtuns in the province.

    “The Punjab government has initiated a crackdown on Pakhtuns from KP and Balochistan, who live there for work, trade, and business. If it doesn’t stop harassing Pakhtuns, we won’t allow the presence of non-locals in our province even if they’re government employees,” the ANP leader told a public meeting in the Titwalan area of Martung tehsil on Thursday.

    Highlighting the right of individuals with national identity cards issued by NADRA to live or work anywhere in the country, Khan emphasized that Pakhtuns should enjoy the same rights as people from other ethnic backgrounds.

    He urged the central government to release due funds to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa promptly.

    Khan further addressed economic disparities, stating that while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced 6,000 megawatts of electricity and sold it to the center at a nominal rate, its residents were compelled to purchase the same electricity at a significantly higher cost.

    The ANP leader said the people shouldn’t sell votes for “plastic pipes, water tanks and electricity poles” and should instead vote for the ANP for their and next generations’ development.

    He regretted that many coal miners from Shangla lost their lives due to a lack of safety measures at work. He blamed the issue on “bad governance and the corrupt system.”

    He said coal mine workers significantly contributed to economic development but the state and government had neglected their welfare and development.

    “As a lawmaker, I’ll strive for the workplace protection and welfare of miners,” he said.

    The ANP leader said in the upcoming elections, the people should reject those, who had been making false promises to them for the last over a decade, and should vote for the ANP for their development.

    ANP candidates Aurangzeb Khan (NA-11), Faisal Zeb Khan (PK-30), Altaf Khan (PK-29), district president Azam Khan and leader Gulab Shahpuri also addressed the meeting.

  • Aiman Khan, Saboor Aly, shower love on Zara Noor Abbas as she announces pregnancy

    Aiman Khan, Saboor Aly, shower love on Zara Noor Abbas as she announces pregnancy

    Zara Noor Abbas could win the cutest pregnancy announcement award if there ever was one, with a hilarious picture she posted holding a desert with a simple caption: “Round 2- – InshaAllah ‍ ‍ ”.

    The actress married Asad Siddiqui in 2017, becoming pregnant in 2021. But sadly, the actress announced she had suffered a miscarriage and lost her son. We’re praying for her health and hope a miracle lies ahead.

    It was also wonderful to witness celebrities showering love and prayers upon Zara and her husband. A-listers Saboor Aly, Mawra Hocane and other actors sent warm congratulations in the comments.

    Among the celebratory notes was actress Merub Ali, who expressed her joy at becoming a khala.

  • Has Taylor Swift married Joe Alwyn? Singer finally speaks up

    Has Taylor Swift married Joe Alwyn? Singer finally speaks up

    Now go stand in a corner and think about what you did!

    There were unverified rumours floating around the internet about a secret marriage between singer Taylor Swift and her former partner actor Joe Alwyn. The two were in a relationship for over six years, with Joe being the subject of several albums. The pair parted ways amicably in March during the early stages of Taylor’s widely successful Eras Tour.

    Popular anonymous pop culture account Duex Moi, known for leaking celebrity gossip on their Instagram account, made a wild claim that Taylor and Joe had a secret marriage ceremony in 2020 which was never made legal. The account claimed they were ready to “die on this hill.”

    But now Taylor’s publicist, Tree Paine, has stepped up to slam the page for spreading “fabricated lies”.

    “Enough is enough with these fabricated lies about Taylor from Deuxmoi. There was NEVER a marriage or ceremony of ANY kind. This is an insane thing to post. It’s time for you to be held accountable for the pain and trauma you cause with posts like these.”

    Swifties were in fits over what they described as the downfall of the controversial gossip blog and soon #deuxmoiisoverparty began trending worldwide.

    The shut down of marriage rumours comes at the time when Taylor Swift released ‘You’re Losing Me’ on streaming platforms, which is widely speculated to be about why her relationship with Joe Alwyn ended. Many fans felt their hunch was confirmed with one of the lyrics being ‘Well I wouldn’t marry me either. A pathological people-pleaser.”

    Previously, Taylor had danced around the topic of marriage when writing love songs about Joe. For instance, in ‘Paper Rings’ she wrote “I like shiny things, but I’ll marry you with paper rings.” Similarly in the track ‘Peace’ from the album ‘Folklore’, Taylor discussed how she would “give you my wild, give you a child”, in a track lamenting how she could never give her lover peace because of the scrutiny her relationships receive from the media.

  • You will never guess which actor is going to play Donald Trump in biopic

    You will never guess which actor is going to play Donald Trump in biopic

    Bad day for fans of hot actors, me thinks.

    An upcoming biopic titled ‘The Apprentice’ is set to explore the life of controversial real estate businessman and former president Donald Trump, tracing the rise of his business empire in the 70’s and 80’s. The film will also star ‘Succession’ alum Jeremy Strong and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalov as the late Ivana, Trump’s first wife.

    There were big questions about who will play Trump, and we couldn’t have been more surprised that the final name is…… Sebastian Stan.

    Y’all see the resemblance? Yeah, me neither.

    The film was announced in 2018, with Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi set to direct and co-write the project along with Gabriel Sherman. Abbasi’s previous credits including directing the last two episodes of HBO original series ‘The Last Of Us’. He has also received the Un Certain Regard from the Cannes Film Festival for ‘Border’ (2018).

  • Punjab announces winter vacations for schools

    Punjab announces winter vacations for schools

    Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has announced on X (former Twitter) that Punjab schools will have a 15-day long winter break, as per the winter vacation schedule.

    Late on Thursday night, Naqvi posted that vacations will start on December 18, 2023, in public and private schools across the province and continue till January 1, 2024.

    “We held a meeting with experts and govt officials today addressing the SMOG challenge in Punjab. With an improved Air Quality Index (AQI), no restrictions are planned for the upcoming weekend. Additionally, winter vacations for children will commence from Dec 18, 2023 to Jan 1, 2024,” the CM wrote on his official handle of Twitter.

    Earlier in the week, Sindh announced winter vacations from December 22 till December 31.

    Read More: Holidays are around the corner in Sindh

  • PML-N hits back at Bilawal over ‘mehangai league’ tirade

    PML-N hits back at Bilawal over ‘mehangai league’ tirade

    The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) responsible for the inflation in the country during the two parties’ coalition government. Political temperature across the spectrum is rising as general election is set to take place on February 8 next year.

    PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been calling the PML-N “mehangai [inflation] league,” alleging that the PML-N is responsible for rising prices in the last 16-months period.

    The term of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which included the PPP, PML-N, and various other parties, concluded in August this year. During this period, there was a significant surge in inflation, unprecedented increases in energy and fuel costs, and a notable decline in foreign reserves.

    In his conversation on Geo News’ programme “Capital Talk”, Musadik Malik — who served as the Minister of State for Petroleum during the PDM government — slammed Bilawal for targeting the PML-N for rising inflation and noted that all decisions in their 16-month stint were collective.

    Musadik Malik also reminded the PPP Chairman that he was a foreign minister of the country in the previous coalition government.

    “So when the minister had the portfolio of Foreign Ministry and I finalised a [oil] deal with Russia, he called it truck ki batti [false hope]. What was that? He should talk about his role as well. Was it my job to secure deals in Azerbaijan Russia? And you, while sitting in the US, said it was truck ki batti. So didn’t we reach our destination while following this truck ki batti?” asked Malik.