Author: i2wtc

PUBLISHED July 13, 2025 KARACHI: After undergoing various socio-political and cultural controversies, and ups and downs, the new Indian film Sardar Ji-3, has been released globally except its parent country India. This leaves 1.5 billion film lovers deprived of enjoying this comedy feast starring Diljit Dosanjh, one of the most prominent and celebrated stars of India. Interestingly, the reason for this deprivation is that the film’s female lead happens to be the famous Pakistani actress Hania Amir. Other stars in the cast include Neeru Bajwa, Manav Vij, Gulshan Grover, Jasmin Bajwa, Nasir Chinyoti (also Pakistani), Sammy Jonas Heaney, Daniel Khawar,…

PUBLISHED July 13, 2025 KARACHI: When I was writing my Master’s dissertation, a friend pursuing his PhD introduced me to Nicola Wright’s work on the Digital Afterlife – a body of research that examines what happens when rituals, practices and cultural legacies are transplanted from the physical world into the digital realm. Wright’s insights helped me think more critically about the posthumous releases of musicians, the fate of digital estates, and the eerie ways algorithms can keep a star alive online long after they’ve died in the flesh. For someone who only experienced a public figure through the Internet, the…

LAHORE: National volleyball team’s captain Murad Jehan wants an international league in Pakistan, saying it will help the local players sharpen their skills while facing stronger opponents. “Though six, seven Pakistan players are competing [currently] in different international leagues, the players who are not getting chances in these leagues, have to play with local contestants which is destroying their game,” Murad told reporters at a reception hosted in the honour of the Pakistan team in Lahore on Saturday for winning silver medal in the Asian Volleyball Championship held in Bahrain earlier this month. “A volleyball league in Pakistan is necessary…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a meeting on the sidelines of NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025.Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Via ReutersA bipartisan U.S. bill that would hit Russia with sanctions in a bid to pressure Moscow into good-faith peace negotiations with Ukraine has gained momentum this week in Congress, but it still lacks the presidential push it needs to get over the finish line.Now, Ukraine’s supporters in Washington and Kyiv, who have for months hoped for President Donald Trump to throw his weight behind the bill, are anxiously awaiting what…

PUBLISHED July 13, 2025 KARACHI: In Karachi, danger doesn’t always lurk in dark alleys or stormy skies — sometimes, it crashes down from above. Pakistan’s largest city and economic heartbeat has recently witnessed a disturbing trend: buildings collapsing without warning, turning homes into death traps and lives into statistics. At least seven significant building collapses occurred in Karachi between 2020 and mid-2025, killing over 80 people. These are just the catastrophes that have been publicised or became news headlines because dozens of people lost their lives — there are also innumerable smaller collapses, such as crumbling walls, shattered rooftops, and…

An aerial drone photo taken on April 6, 2025 shows Adora Magic City berthing at the Qingdao International Cruise Terminal in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua) — With strong tides of innovation and a deepening drive for sustainability, China’s marine economy is surging forward as a fast-growing engine of “blue” growth.Now a more than 10-trillion-yuan (about 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars) powerhouse accounting for around 7.8 percent of China’s GDP, the marine economy expanded by 5.9 percent year-on-year in 2024, outpacing overall economic growth, and is increasingly serving as a testbed for technological innovation and sustainable…

PUBLISHED July 13, 2025 KARACHI: The war in Gaza has unfolded in real time, pixel by pixel, on the world’s screens — and with it, a catalogue of suffering so vast it defies human comprehension. Nearly two years since it began, Israeli bombardment has reduced the Palestinian enclave to rubble. Entire neighbourhoods have been erased – families buried beneath collapsed homes – children starved, and civilians crushed under the weight of an unrelenting assault. And yet, despite an international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu, global powers remain paralysed, divided — or simply unwilling — to bring the Israeli prime minister…

INDIAN batter Rishabh Pant plays a shot during the third Test against England at Lord’s on Saturday.—Reuters LONDON: K. L. Rahul scored a century while Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant pitched in with crucial fifties as India posted 387 on day three, equalling England’s first innings, with their third Test hanging in the balance at Lord’s on Saturday. An injury to Shoaib Bashir blunted England’s pace-spin attack strategy when India looked vulnerable with five wickets down after losing Pant and Rahul in quick succession, before Jadeja steadied their innings with his third fifty-plus knock in a row. England openers Zak…

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in Shanghai on Saturday for a six-day visit to three Chinese cities where regional security tensions and economic ties are likely to dominate talks.Albanese’s second visit to China, where he will meet President Xi Jinping, comes after Canberra stepped up screening of Chinese investment in critical minerals and as U.S. President Donald Trump rattles the global economy with sweeping import tariffs.Here is a timeline of relations between Australia and China over recent years:Nov. 17, 2014 – Australia sealed a landmark free trade agreement with top trade partner China, concluding a decade of negotiations. It…

Listen to article ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry has disclosed in a report that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) last year incurred a net loss of Rs4.6 billion and one-off accounting profit of Rs26 billion due to treating past losses as future assets “should not be misinterpreted as a sign of operational profitability”. The biannual report on federal state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has again highlighted the inefficiencies of PIA, though it has been freed from legacy debt and liabilities. The Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) of the Ministry of Finance released the report on Friday, which gave an in-depth understanding of the accounts of PIA Corporation…