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Dawn - 11:51 Jul 17, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted on Friday that the security of Chinese in Pakistan was “paramount for us”. “I would like to say with fullest force at my command that the security of Chinese brothers and sisters in Pakistan is paramount for us, it is most important. And we will leave no stone unturned to provide them with the best possible security,” he said while addressing the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical and Healthcare B2B Investment Conference in Islamabad. The conference also saw the signing of multiple agreements between Pakistani and Chinese companies in the areas of healthcare, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, with PM Shehbaz saying that the deals were cumulatively valued at almost $440 million. PM Shehbaz’s assurance came two days after State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry said authorities were stepping up security around the China-run Saindak copper and gold mine in Balochistan after supply routes were disrupted in the region by terrorists. His statement came against the backdrop of ... -
Dawn - 11:38 Jul 17, 2026
In May earlier this year, Islamabad and Beijing commemorated the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, with the bilateral discourse predictably gravitating toward familiar flourishes. Bonds “higher than the Himalayas and stronger than steel” once again resurfaced in official handouts and state-level speeches. Yet, beneath the ceremonial surface of this milestone, a more consequential structural transformation is being engineered. Over the course of this 75-year arc, the relationship has gradually evolved from a traditional diplomatic alignment into a highly structured economic partnership. What was once framed in exclusively strategic terms has increasingly been recast as a matrix of economic and technological cooperation. This ongoing evolution has allowed both capitals to systematically convert a long-standing political bond into a more functional, project-driven engine. The bilateral partnership is now attempting to pivot from an early-stage, state-led infrastructure programme into a more intricate, m... -
Dawn - 10:14 Jul 17, 2026
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate at the Cantonment Courts granted police 14-day judicial remand of four suspects, including one related to a senior political figure, in a case of alleged kidnapping and rape of two foreign women. One of those two women is a national of the Netherlands and the other of Venezuela, and a case of their alleged abduction and sexual assault was registered on July 2. Subsequently, police had arrested four of the suspects and were initially granted their five-day physical remand on July 3. The suspects’ remand was extended twice in the following days, last on July 13. They were produced before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood on Friday, following the expiry of their physical remand. The investigating officer (IO) submitted a progress report before the court and requested that the suspects now be sent on judicial remand. The magistrate accepted the request and sent the four suspects on judicial remand for 14 days. During the hearing, the state prosecutor opposed a plea by the counsel of ... -
Dawn - 09:38 Jul 17, 2026
Iran launches fresh attacks on American facilities in Gulf after sixth consecutive day of US strikes
Iran said it launched fresh attacks on American facilities in the Gulf on Friday after a sixth consecutive night of US strikes on Iranian military facilities, as last month’s truce descended into daily attacks and counterattacks. The US military said it completed another night of strikes on Iran “to further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, including on Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities. “US forces, including fighter jets, aerial drones, and warships, launched precision munitions that hit dozens of Iranian military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities,” the US Central Command said in a statement. Iran has fired missiles and drones at US military bases in neighbouring states, including an air base in Jordan. In the early hours of Friday, Iran’s military said it had attacked US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. Several explosion-like sounds were... -
Dawn - 09:31 Jul 17, 2026
All-rounder Mohammad Nawaz has been sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after testing positive for a cannabis-related substance, the cricket governing body said on Friday. In April, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had sent the player’s medical history to the ICC after it was reported that he failed a dope test conducted during the T20 World Cup staged in Sri Lanka and India. In a press release issued on Friday, the ICC said that the 32-year-old cricketer had tested positive for Carboxy-THC — a metabolite of THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis — after a doping test carried out after Pakistan’s T20 World Cup 2026 match against the Netherlands in Colombo on Feb 7. Carboxy-THC is classified as a Substance of Abuse under the ICC’s Anti-Doping Code. “Nawaz admitted to the offence and demonstrated that the substance had been used out-of-competition, in a manner unrelated to sport performance,” it said. The ICC handed the player a “three-month period of ineligibility” but noted that this wa... -
Dawn - 09:27 Jul 17, 2026
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Friday forecast widespread rain, windstorms and thundershowers in several parts of the country over the coming days as strong monsoon currents continue to affect Pakistan. In a weather advisory, the department said that “monsoon currents from the Arabian Sea were continuously penetrating the upper and central parts of the country and were likely to strengthen over the weekend”. It added that a westerly disturbance was also expected to approach the upper parts of the country on Monday (July 20). Under the influence of the weather system, the PMD said rain, windstorms/thundershowers, accompanied by scattered heavy to very heavy falls at times, were expected in Neelum Valley, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Poonch, Hattian Bala, Bagh, Haveli, Sudhnoti, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur from July 18 to July 25, with occasional gaps. Similar weather, accompanied by scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall, was expected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dir, Chitral, Swat, Kohistan, Malakand, N... -
Dawn - 09:07 Jul 17, 2026
Israel has taken a legal step toward implementing a controversial proposal by extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to surround prisons holding Palestinian detainees with crocodile-filled moats, Hebrew media reports said on Thursday. Israel’s Channel 7 said Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman signed an order reclassifying crocodiles as “managed wild animals,” allowing government bodies, including the Israel Prison Service, to keep them in their facilities under specified conditions. The move removes a key legal obstacle that had stymied the plan, as crocodiles were previously classified as protected wild animals that could only be kept in licensed zoos, the broadcaster said. Channel 13 said the legal change followed objections by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to the proposed project, dubbed the “crocodile prison” by Hebrew media. Ben-Gvir unveiled the proposal about six months ago, calling for a high-security prison encircled by crocodile-filled waterways to deter escape attem... -
Dawn - 08:50 Jul 17, 2026
Security forces have killed 24 terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district and its adjoining areas in the last 24 hours, the military’s media affairs wing said in a statement on Friday afternoon. The statement by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that recently, there had been a “surge” in terrorist activities against police and suicide bombings in Bannu. In these incidents, the statement said, “Indian proxy Fitna-al-Khawarij targeted law enforcement agencies and innocent civilians”. Fitna-al-Khawarij is the term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban. “Security forces have initiated extensive joint intelligence-based operations to hunt the perpetrators of these heinous attacks and their support infrastructure. “Accordingly, in the last 24 hours, following fierce fire exchanges in Bannu district and adjoining areas, 24 khawarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna-al-khawarij have been sent to hell,” the statement said. It added that weapons and ammunition were found in the possession ... -
Dawn - 08:01 Jul 17, 2026
Relatives of the five crew members aboard a Boeing 737 cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea off Karachi last week are urging an international search effort to find the flight recorders to determine the cause. Debris from the K2 Airways freighter was recovered shortly after the July 7 crash, but the water in the area is about 3,000 metres deep. Finding the “black boxes” would require a costly underwater search likely to need foreign assistance, according to aviation experts familiar with deepwater crashes such as Air France 447 in 2009. The locator beacons on the 27-year-old plane were designed to transmit pings for only 30 days. Recovering the recorders could show whether a navigation system issue reported shortly before the crash was linked to a navigation component that relatives say was replaced before the flight. The Pakistan Airports Authority has not provided an update on the search operation for a week, and an industrial company with underwater search expertise told Reuters it had not heard o... -
Dawn - 07:29 Jul 17, 2026
Oil prices inched up on Friday after the US and Iran stepped up attacks across the Gulf, with their broken truce limiting oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz and with Tehran asking the Houthis to stand ready to shut the Red Sea export route. Brent crude futures rose 7 cents, or about 0.08 per cent, to $84.30 a barrel at 0632 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate futures gained 16 cents, or 0.2pc, to $79.11 a barrel. Both benchmark contracts have climbed nearly 12pc this week, with Brent on track for a third consecutive weekly gain and WTI on pace for a second weekly gain. “The potential threat of the Red Sea becoming another major supply disruption point is further complicating the global oil outlook,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade. He noted the “dual-risk scenario” was keeping a geopolitical premium embedded in both benchmarks. For the first time since a memorandum of understanding paused fighting last month, the US launched two major waves of air strikes in a single day on Wednesday,... -
Dawn - 06:38 Jul 17, 2026
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday cast Beijing as the champion of a new global AI order, using China’s premier tech conference to promote open-source technology and challenge US influence over the rules governing the fast-moving sector. In a speech to the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, Xi urged countries to “seize the rare and historic opportunity” of open-source AI, and pledged to help developing nations build AI capabilities, warning against the emergence of “new historical injustices” from unequal access to the technology. The remarks amounted to Xi’s clearest articulation yet of China’s ambition to shape global AI governance, framing its open-source models as a global public good and positioning Beijing as an alternative to Washington at a pivotal moment in the race for technological leadership. Comparing AI’s significance to the invention of the steam engine and electricity, Xi outlined a vision in which China shares AI technology and expert... -
Dawn - 06:33 Jul 17, 2026
China and Pakistan on Friday called on the United States and Iran to end fighting and return to the negotiating table, after they met in Shanghai, according to a government statement issued by Beijing. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar jointly “expressed concern over the deterioration of the current situation, calling on the involved parties to immediately cease hostilities… (and) return to dialogue”, the statement by Beijing’s foreign ministry said. Both countries have sought to mediate in the months-long Middle East conflict, which rekindled with renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz a month after the signing of a preliminary deal aiming to end the war. That agreement was “hard-won”, Wang said. “Peace is before our eyes, (we) cannot fall at the last hurdle and even more so cannot lose what we have gained,” he added. It should be mentioned that DPM Dar was in Shanghai for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Meanwhile, the Foreign Office (... -
Dawn - 05:30 Jul 17, 2026
TL;DR Pros Pays tribute to the Batman films, comics and animated series beautifully The Freeflow combat system makes a much-needed return Side-splitting dialogue and slapstick humour Multiple unlockable costumes and Batmobiles Cons Combat can be a little too easy Some puzzles are extremely simplistic Voice acting is a bit weak, with Batman being the weakest The Riddler is back Provisional score: 4.5/7 — Enjoying it, but I want a greater challenge Reviewed on PlayStation 5; available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Windows) and Nintendo Switch 2 Price: Rs17,000 (physical copy); $69.99 (PlayStation Store); $59.99 (Steam) When we put up a review of 007 First Light, we asked our readers (you lovely people) which game we should review next: Pragmata or Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. And the people have spoken. I’ve played the Lego games before and I’m a casual fan of the series. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is one of my favourite games on the Nintendo Wii. But the series has evolved, with far ... -
Dawn - 05:06 Jul 17, 2026
WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is expected to arrive in Washington on Saturday for a three-day visit during which he will hold talks with officials on trade, finance and investment as Pakistan and the United States continue negotiations on a broader bilateral economic partnership, diplomatic sources told Dawn. According to the sources, Aurangzeb is scheduled to meet officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A key focus of the visit will be discussions on the framework of a potential bilateral trade agreement aimed at expanding trade and investment between the two countries. The talks are expected to cover tariffs, market access, investment opportunities and broader economic cooperation. Meetings with the Exim Bank and the DFC are also expected to explore avenues for financing infrastructure, energy and private-sector investme... -
Dawn - 04:26 Jul 17, 2026
Iran said it launched fresh attacks on US facilities in the Gulf on Friday after a sixth consecutive night of US strikes on Iranian military facilities, as last month’s truce descended into daily attacks and counterattacks. The US military said it completed another night of strikes on Iran “to further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, including on Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities. “US forces, including fighter jets, aerial drones, and warships, launched precision munitions that hit dozens of Iranian military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities,” the US Central Command said in a statement. Iran has fired missiles and drones at US military bases in neighbouring states, including an air base in Jordan. In the early hours of Friday, Iran’s military said it had attacked US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. Several explosion-like sounds were heard... -
Dawn - 03:30 Jul 17, 2026
LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan was on Thursday appointed to the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber, by outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Khan was one of 26 new appointments confirmed by the government just days before Starmer is due to hand over power to Andy Burnham on Monday. The appointment means Khan and the others who come from across the political spectrum with a range of different professional backgrounds can participate in the lawmaking process. The upper chamber typically revises and scrutinises laws put forward by the elected House of Commons, though it has on occasion been the arena for protracted battles over the principles of legislation. Khan will continue to serve as the elected mayor of London. His appointment to the House of Lords would allow Starmer’s successor to give Khan a ministerial portfolio when he names his new government next week, though no such role has been confirmed. Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026 -
Dawn - 03:27 Jul 17, 2026
United States President Donald Trump on Thursday revived sweeping and unsupported claims of voter fraud and Chinese meddling — firing a clear warning shot ahead of midterm elections that many expect him to dispute. In a primetime White House address, Trump portrayed the US electoral system as dangerously exposed and urged lawmakers to adopt new restrictions on voting, despite scant appetite for the measures even within his own Republican Party. “We can never watch a stolen election again,” Trump said, referring to his 2020 defeat by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump said he was declassifying intelligence that showed, among other things, that China had illicitly acquired 220 million US voter files. “Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” he said from the White House. Trump also claimed that more than 250,000 non-US citizens were registered to vote in four states. He then atta... -
Dawn - 03:04 Jul 17, 2026
BRITAIN’S plans to deport the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang are “entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom” and have “no connection whatsoever” with Pakistan, the Foreign Office spokesperson told the BBC. Calls have mounted for Shabir Ahmed’s deportation following his recent release from prison, but has been held up due to a law from 1971 that bars the deportation of Commonwealth citizens. Ahmed, who came to the UK in the late 1960s, was one of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at two takeaway restaurants. According to the BBC, he had dual British-Pakistani citizenship before being stripped of his UK passport following his 2012 conviction for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls. Andy Burnham, who is set to replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister next, has described Ahmed as a “vile criminal” who he wants deported. Although Home Minister Shabana Mahmood has indicated plans to amend the law, it appears that Ahmed’s remo... -
Dawn - 02:51 Jul 17, 2026
MUZAFFARABAD: With preparations for the upcoming elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir gathering pace, political strategies seem to be moving towards more engagement with the region’s main malcontents — the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC). A recent visit by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari saw the PPP chief and his team engaging with political bigwigs from the region, including AJK PM Faisal Mumtaz Rathore. In addition, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is due in Mirpur tomorrow, where he is expected to address an election rally. In addition to supplementing their election campaign, the leaders’ visits are being seen as an attempt by the two main political parties to position themselves as active players in AJK politics, which have been dominated in recent months by the JAAC protests regarding its demand for the abolition of refugee seats in the region’s legislature. Bhutto-Zardari’s visit also coincided with what was earlier billed as a ‘backchannel attempt’ to engage with the proscribed outfit, which saw a delegation led by... -
Dawn - 02:47 Jul 17, 2026
A STUDENT who recently graduated with a degree in English literature visited me a few weeks back for a discussion on the career paths and choices that were open to her. She enjoyed her undergraduate experience a lot as she loved reading and studying literature, but was now unsure whether she possessed the skills to be ‘market ready’. She did not want to go on to graduate studies in literature. She wanted to write but to keep it on the side. She wanted to discuss the possibility of taking up a job in the development and corporate sector with her knowledge base. The student was articulate, and clearly had very sound analytical and reflective thinking skills. Her communication skills were excellent, and her writing ability, evident from what she mentioned in her resumé, were quite good as well. She had taken the time to reflect deeply on what she had read and learned during her four-year undergraduate experience, and this was reflected in her personality. I told her that although she didn’t possess some of the ‘...
12682 items