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Dawn - 09:32 Jun 25, 2026
As Europe sweats through record-breaking temperatures, Asian makers of air conditioners, such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, China’s Midea and Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric, are enjoying a boom in sales. Air conditioning is common throughout buildings, transport and homes in major cities across Asia, but it is rare in Europe, and people are struggling to stay cool as searing heat claims lives, disrupts power supplies and shuts schools. Seeking respite from the sizzling weather, people and companies across Europe are snapping up portable and fixed air conditioners as some countries warn the heatwave could intensify. “With temperatures expected to rise further from June onward, we expect sustained demand through the peak cooling season,” said Samsung Electronics in a statement to Reuters. Key markets, including Italy, Spain and France, generated double-digit sales growth in the first half of this year, it added. Rival LG Electronics said air conditioner production lines at one of its facilities in South Ko... -
Dawn - 08:17 Jun 25, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday said Pakistan was now being recognised as a “peacemaker” on the global stage for its role in mediating between the United States and Iran. Speaking to the media in Lahore, he said that following Pakistan’s role in the US-Iran negotiations, the country was now being recognised as a “peacemaker.” “Pakistan, which was once said to have become diplomatically isolated, is now being discussed across the entire world,” Dar said. “Even those countries that did not know Pakistan before, now know Pakistan,” he said. He added that Pakistan was now viewed as a “middle power” with an active diplomatic role internationally. “We now have to become an economic power. For this, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is working day and night,” he said. Recalling the PML-N’s past economic performance, Dar said Pakistan had witnessed strong macroeconomic indicators during 2013–2017. “This was the same country which, from 2013 to 2017, had its voice heard across the world. A... -
Dawn - 08:03 Jun 25, 2026
Pakistan and China co-organised an informal meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), providing a platform for the member states to discuss how the council “can ensure the full, effective and non-selective implementation of its resolutions,” the Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday. UN Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari, UNSC Report Executive Director Shamala Kandiah and Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group briefed the meeting held on Tuesday. They “emphasised that implementation lies at the heart of the Council’s credibility, authority and effectiveness”, the FO said. The speakers stressed that UN resolutions must be accompanied by “realistic mandates, clear implementation pathways, sustained reporting, adequate resources, political will and follow-up mechanisms” that can translate the resolutions into practical action on the ground. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, who serves in the UN as the permanent representative of Pakistan, added that UNSC resolutions are legal obligation... -
Dawn - 05:59 Jun 25, 2026
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February 28, the first day of the Iran war, that killed scores of children. Reuters reported in March that an initial internal US military investigation showed US forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab in southern Iran. The Pentagon has since elevated the probe but it has not acknowledged any preliminary findings. “I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place, and it’s horrible what happened but there were missiles flying all over the place,” he said. “Somebody said it was our missile, maybe it wasn’t our missile but I have seen nothing to lead me to believe it was,” Trump remarked, adding: “I don’t think it was us.” The strike on February 28, when the US and Israe... -
Dawn - 05:14 Jun 25, 2026
United States President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war in a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans on Wednesday, shortly before his administration asked Congress for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the conflict. Several Republicans who attended said Trump engaged in a shouting match with Senator Bill Cassidy, who said the administration needed to explain a framework deal Trump signed last week that gives Iran financial incentives but falls short of the goals he laid out at the war’s beginning. “The American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy told reporters. “It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.” Later on Wednesday, the Senate’s Republican leaders scheduled a late-night vote to block a resolution calling for an end to hostilities with Iran in what appeared to be an effort to please the president. The Senate voted by 50 to 47, largely along party lines, to block a war powers reso... -
Dawn - 03:54 Jun 25, 2026
• Girl subjected to ‘violent rape’ before being murdered • Police surgeon describes it as ‘one of the most horrific cases in her career’ • IGP forms special team to bring culprits to justice KARACHI: A three-year-old girl was found murdered at her doorstep in Quaidabad and initial findings of a post-mortem examination confirmed that she had been subjected to “violent rape” before being murdered, officials said on Wednesday. Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed described the gruesome murder as “one of the most horrific cases” she had seen in her career. “All rape-murder cases of children are horrific, but some are more [terrible] than the others. This was one of them. Really disturbing,” she said. The incident prompted the inspector general of police (IGP) to form a high-level probe team, tasking the DIG of East Zone to conduct transparent investigation of the case. The Quaidabad police said the body of Kulsoom Mohammed Qasim, stuffed in a gunny bag, was found outside her home near Mustafa Masjid in Muslimabad Colony ... -
Dawn - 02:46 Jun 25, 2026
• FO expects technical talks to resume on Tuesday • Hopes Hormuz tensions will ease with diplomatic progress • Urges Afghanistan to prevent terrorism emanating from its soil • Says govt pursuing release of crew members from hijacked tanker ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday expressed optimism over ongoing high-level technical talks between Iran and the United States, saying progress in trade and economic cooperation with Iran would be linked to the easing of international sanctions on Tehran. Addressing the weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said the pathway towards sanctions relief for Iran had already been initiated through talks held in Buergenstock, Switzerland. He described the process as a positive development and expressed the hope that the negotiations would produce constructive results as they moved forward. Responding to a question, the spokesman said there had been a temporary pause in technical-level discussions between Iran and the United States and tha... -
Dawn - 02:44 Jun 25, 2026
LAHORE: The Punjab government has sent the first batch, comprising 135 skilled youths, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) under the ‘Parwaaz Card’ initiative. Addressing a ceremony in this regard here on Wednesday, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said the youths going abroad for employment would not merely be workers but ambassadors of Pakistan. She said providing quality vocational training to the youth of Punjab was her dream, which is being transformed into reality by Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) under the supervision of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Department (SD&ED). Punjab Task Force on Skill Development Chairman Adnan Afzal Chattha and SD&ED Secretary Nadir Chattha, PSDF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ahmed Khan, recruitment partners, representatives of the Bank of Punjab (BoP), overseas employment promoters and the Parwaaz Card beneficiaries attended the event. Interacting with the participants, Ms Nawaz inquired about their experience with the Parwaaz Card scheme and told them, “When... -
Dawn - 21:10 Jun 24, 2026
The National Assembly on Wednesday approved a supplementary budget of Rs593.64 billion for the fiscal year 2024-2025 (FY24-25) and a sum of Rs475.05bn for the outgoing fiscal year (FY25-26). Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb moved a series of papers for approval during Wednesday’s session. Under the Constitution, the government must secure parliamentary approval for the federal budget before any spending. This approval allows the government to spend specified funds for different heads. However, the government often seeks retrospective approval for additional amounts already spent, leaving the parliament with no choice but to regularise these expenditures. The NA’s X account said Aurangzeb laid the Supplementary Authorised Expenditure 2024-2025 and 2025- 2026, along with other papers, before the house under Article 83 of the Constitution. Dawn provides a breakdown of the additional amounts approved for spending during FY24-25 and FY25-26, which will conclude on June 30. FY2024-25 The following supplementary ... -
Dawn - 20:25 Jun 24, 2026
More than 500 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or died due to poor care at a UK hospital, according to a damning report published on Wednesday, in the country’s latest maternity scandal. At least 156 cases involved the death of babies and six mothers also died at two units run by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust in central England. The independent probe was the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the state-run National Health Service (NHS), involving over 2,500 families in cases spanning 13 years from 2012-2025. It comes after a string of other investigations in recent years highlighted a crisis in England’s care of mother and babies. Sarah and Jack Hawkins’ daughter Harriet should have been born healthy, but was stillborn in 2016. The couple were both senior clinicians at the trust at the time. “I just can’t compute … how they did this to us and how they did this to all these families,” said Sarah Hawkins, a physiotherapist, after the report’s publication. “Our concerns wer... -
Dawn - 20:18 Jun 24, 2026
The biggest casualty of the US-Iran deal may not be Israel’s Iran strategy, but the political brand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent decades constructing as the Israeli leader who could uniquely bend Washington to his will on Iran, analysts, former US officials and diplomats say. Netanyahu built his political identity on an audacious assertion: that he alone could keep the US and Israel in strategic lockstep on Iran. Cultivating Republican support, he cast himself as the only Israeli leader capable of influencing successive US presidents and insisted that only sustained military pressure could contain Tehran. At the height of his power, he was described by diplomats as the “American whisperer”, the Israeli leader who could pick up the phone and ensure Washington’s strategic calculus aligned with that of Israel. US President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, DC, the US on April 7, 2025. — Reuters/File No other Israeli prime ... -
Dawn - 20:06 Jun 24, 2026
PESHAWAR: As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly on Wednesday passed an Rs2.17 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27), bulldozing the cut motions and approving grants of all the departments, Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said the coming fiscal year will be one of peace, prosperity and development for the province. The FY27 budget for KP was presented on June 20, with CM Afridi saying that the provincial government would not give any grants to the federal government, and that any decision on providing additional funds to the Centre would be made by PTI founder Imran Khan. “We cannot develop unless there is peace, and this is why we have enhanced the budget for police to Rs40 billion in order to equip them, develop infrastructure, enhance capacity and remove all shortcomings,” the chief minister said today while addressing lawmakers in the KP Assembly. The chief minister, during the session chaired by KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, stated that Peshawar, which was the provincial capital and ... -
Dawn - 19:28 Jun 24, 2026
British financial institution Barclays has upgraded Pakistan’s dollar bonds to overweight after having lowered the rating the previous month, citing improved oil market prospects, it emerged on Wednesday. The upgraded rating was shared in a report by Bloomberg, cited by the advisor to the finance minister, Khurram Schehzad in a post on X. According to the relative rating system used by Barclays coverage analysts, the “overweight” rating means that the stock is expected to outperform the unweighted expected total return of the industry coverage universe over a 12-month investment horizon. This is in contrast to “equal weight” — wherein the stock is expected to perform in line with this expected return — and “underweight”, in which it is expected to underperform. “The resilience of Pakistan’s external position cannot be ignored and it underpins the more optimistic view,” the Bloomberg report cited analysts, including Avanti Save, as saying. The report said Barclays noted that the economy continued to demonstrat... -
Dawn - 19:03 Jun 24, 2026
Pakistan used a high-level diplomatic gathering at the United Nations on Wednesday to build international support for stronger global action against viral hepatitis, while new World Health Organisation (WHO) data underscored the scale of the challenge facing the country. The Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN and the Secretariat of the UN Group of Friends to Eliminate Hepatitis co-hosted a strategic briefing on the sidelines of the UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS under the theme, “Advancing Hepatitis Elimination: Building Momentum toward High-Level Political Action”. The meeting brought together health ministry officials, diplomats and global health experts to discuss viral hepatitis, a disease that claims approximately 1.3 million lives annually worldwide. Participants also explored pathways toward securing a standalone UN High-Level Meeting on Viral Hepatitis by 2028. Opening the event, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Usman Jadoon highlighted Islamabad’s commitment to ... -
Dawn - 19:02 Jun 24, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a phone call with the Qatari emir on Wednesday, during which he said the two leaders expressed satisfaction at the “positive progress” made in the first round of technical talks between the US and Iran in Switzerland and agreed to sustain this momentum. “Had a warm and most cordial telephone conversation with my dear brother, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of the State of Qatar, this afternoon,” PM Shehbaz posted on X. He added that he thanked the Qatari emir for his country’s “steadfast support for the peace efforts that culminated in the historic Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding”, which was signed by the US and Iran on June 18. “We expressed satisfaction at the positive progress made during the first round of technical talks in Bürgenstock and agreed on the importance of sustaining this momentum through continued dialogue and diplomacy,” he wrote. PM Shehbaz also thanked the Qatari emir for his “kind condolences on the tragic loss of a Pakistani na... -
Dawn - 18:22 Jun 24, 2026
The PPP on Wednesday took exception to a “sweeping statement” by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif regarding the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). In an interview on a TV show, the minister had said that Rawalakot — which has been in the grip of protests by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) — is “not Kashmir” and that he did not consider people from there Kashmiris. Asif had subsequently taken to X to clarify that “Kashmiriat is defined by the sacrifices and struggles waged over almost eight decades by Pakistanis, including Kashmiris and all others, not by birth certificates”. Speaking in the National Assembly on Wednesday, PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that such a “sweeping statement” should not be given under any circumstances, especially from such a “senior” official. He said that Asif’s remarks had hurt the sentiments of several people, adding that Azad Kashmir was a “sensitive area” and care needed to be taken before making remarks about it. He said that “water needed to be poured onto the fire”... -
Dawn - 17:05 Jun 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The PTI on Wednesday rejected the latest round of statements made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the floor of the National Assembly regarding the legitimacy of the PTI government formed in 2018. During an NA session on Tuesday, the premier, noting that Opposition Leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai had called the incumbent government “illegitimate”, asserted that the 2018 elections should be investigated. He contended that if the government that came after those polls was legitimate, the incumbent government was also legitimate. On Wednesday, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said in a statement: “In a remarkable display of selective memory and political acrobatics, Shehbaz Sharif attempted to equate the current Form-47 regime with the 2018 elections, claiming that if one was legitimate, so is the other. “PTI views this not as a defence but as a tacit admission that the February 2024 elections witnessed one of the most brazen thefts of the people’s mandate in the nation’s history,” he alle... -
Dawn - 16:36 Jun 24, 2026
SARGODHA: The Sargodha police on Wednesday said the prime suspect in a recent murder case of a seven-year-old girl was killed “by his accomplices’ firing” during an alleged encounter with the Crime Control Department (CCD) after he allegedly escaped police custody. The prime suspect was accused of trying to rape the girl before killing her, with her body being found in a shop on Monday, where the father said she had gone to buy some items. The suspect had been arrested along with at least three others, on whose behest the criminal acts were allegedly committed. On Wednesday, Sargodha Regional Police Officer (RPO) Shahzad Asif Khan told Dawn that the prime suspect accused of attempted rape and murder of the minor girl has been allegedly killed during an encounter with the CCD police early on Wednesday. A first information report (FIR) filed by a CCD station house officer (SHO) early on Wednesday said the prime suspect, who had reportedly escaped police custody on Tuesday, died due to firing by his “accomplices... -
Dawn - 15:41 Jun 24, 2026
Startup Revora has raised $2 million in a seed round as it shifts from functioning as a conversational commerce tool to an AI operating platform for ecommerce merchants, according to a press release issued by the company. The seed funding round was co-led by i2i Ventures and Oraseya Capital, with participation from Anchorless Bangladesh, Conjunction Capital, F6 Ventures, Hi2 Global, Orbit Startups, as well as strategic angels and operators from Bolt, Mubadala and EY, the press release said. The company’s proceeds from the seed funding round would primarily go towards growth in Saudi Arabia, Revora’s largest and fastest- growing market, and into the product, as the company builds for a future where more of buying runs through AI, it added. Formerly known as MyAlice, Revora was co-founded by Shuvo Rahman and Daniyal Baig. Detailing its operations in the press release, the company said its AI agents recommend products, recover carts and “take payment inside the conversation, whether that’s on WhatsApp, Instagram... -
Dawn - 15:25 Jun 24, 2026
GILGIT: French climber Guillaume Pierrel lost his life after a snow avalanche hit as he attempted to scale the 7,282-metre-high K-6 peak in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ghanche district. Mountains in the north of Pakistan are a popular destination for adventure tourism, with many climbers aiming to summit prestigious peaks such as K2 and Nanga Parbat. However, rough terrain and harsh weather conditions create a challenge, frequently causing deaths and injuries. Tour operator Ishaq Ali told Dawn that a foreign climbing team — comprising 41-year-old Pierrel and Boris Jule from France, and Christina Maria from Switzerland — was attempting to scale K-6 situated in Ghanche’s Hushe valley. The team set out on the expedition on June 6. He said that during the attempt, a snow avalanche hit the team at an altitude of about 5,000m. Pierrel died on the spot, while the other two climbers remained safe, the tour operator said. “Through satellite communication, they informed their relatives in France and ultimately, the relatives co...
12400 items