Everything That Has Happened In The Last 24 Hours

LOCAL An accountability court decided to grant NAB physical remand of Maryam Nawaz and her cousin The court had earlier reserved its verdict on NAB’s request for the duo’s 15-day physical remand. Following the hearing, Maryam was driven away from the court by NAB officials. A day earlier, the PML-N vice president and her cousin were arrested by the anti-corruption watchdog in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case. Accountability court judge Naeem Arshad heard NAB’s request for 15-day physical remand of the two. Special prosecutor Hafiz Asadullah and Haris Qureshi presented arguments on behalf of the accountability watchdog. Advocate Amjad Pervez was in the court on behalf of Maryam and her cousin.During the proceedings, Asadullah said that suspicious transactions had been carried out in Maryam’s bank accounts. He added that NAB had summoned her twice. Asif Ali Zardari has dismissed criticism after making remarks in the Parliament that are being perceived as anti-migrant While speaking during the second day of the joint session of parliament on Wednesday, Zardari had asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to keep “historical context” in mind while devising the future of course of action regarding India’s move to revoke the autonomy for occupied Kashmir. He said the prime minister did not need to inform his party of Hindutva’s fundamentalist tactics in India, because it was already aware of those realities. The former president then proceeded to justify his argument through national history by claiming that it was the people of Sindh and Bangladesh who had “made Pakistan” and that those who migrated from India had no contribution towards the Pakistan Movement. Shehbaz Sharif has accused the government of “pushing the opposition against the wall” after the arrest of his niece During his speech on the floor of the National Assembly in an ongoing session of the lower house, Shehbaz repeated his claim that the government and NAB “were in an alliance”. He regretted that Maryam was arrested in front of her father and children. A day earlier, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had vehemently denounced the government on Maryam’s arrest and walked out of the NA session in protest. She had been arrested in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case from Kot Lakhpat jail, where she was visiting her father Nawaz Sharif. During today’s session, Shehbaz said: “This is not the first time we have suffered this injustice. My hair has turned white, we have seen all of this before.” “Imran Khan Niazi is deluded if he thinks he can scare us with injustice and cruelty, that he can force Nawaz Sharif and his family to give in,” the PML-N president added. The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief, Gilgit-Baltistan governor, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) president have been added to the seven-member committee on Indian Occupied Kashmir Senator Sirajul Haq, the JI leader, would be extended a formal invitation to join the committee, the notification added, further noting that AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, GB Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon, as well as Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem, would be included in the special team. The notification added that the seven-member committee would analyse India’s latest move — to abolish Article 370 and 35A, thereby, scrapping occupied Kashmir’s special status — and put forth recommendations. In addition, Tuesday’s notification had said the committee would recommend legal, political, and diplomatic responses to developments in the occupied Kashmir. GLOBAL Thousands have come out to protest in Indian Occupied Kashmir over the scrapping of Article 370, despite security crackdown Indian police used tear gas and pellets to fight back at least 10,000 people protesting Delhi’s withdrawal of special rights for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state in its main city of Srinagar on Friday, a police official and two witnesses said. The demonstration soon after Friday prayers was the largest since authorities locked down the revolt-torn region five days ago, cutting off telephone and internet services and detaining more than 500 political and separatist leaders. Seeking to tighten its grip on the region also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan, India this week scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there. Regional leaders have warned of a backlash in the area, where militants have been fighting Indian rule for nearly 30 years, leading to the deaths of more than 50,000 people. China has ordered the Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific to suspend any staff who support pro-democracy protests Beijing’s demand coincided with a peaceful rally at Hong Kong’s airport, where thousands occupied a terminal. Cathay also faced pressure online after China’s state-run press fuelled a #BoycottCathayPacific hashtag, which trended on Chinese social media. Hong Kong has seen weeks of protests over China’s control of the territory. The protests began about nine weeks ago over a proposed extradition bill between Hong Kong and mainland China and evolved into demands for greater freedoms. Hong Kong is part of China but its citizens have more autonomy than those on the mainland. It has a free press and judicial independence under the so-called “one country, two systems” approach – freedoms activists fear are being increasingly eroded. The suspect accused of killing 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, has confessed that he was targeting “Mexicans” An arrest report obtained by some news outlets sheds light on his arrest and his interviews while in police custody. Officials believe the alleged gunman, Patrick Crusius, is the author of an online post decrying Hispanic migrants. The shooting came just hours before another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. The two incidents have prompted a national debate about gun laws, with Republicans indicating they may be open to tightening background checks on buyers. Federal officials say they are considering hate crime charges against Mr Crusius, who could face the death penalty if found guilty of the mass murder.
Mexican police have found the bodies of nine people hanging from a bridge in what is being called part of gang-related violence The massacre in the city of Uruapan in the western Michoacán state is thought to be gang-related, prosecutors say. A banner hanging from the bridge reportedly bore the initials of one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels. Criminals have previously hung the bodies of their murdered victims in public to intimidate rival gangs. “There is a turf war between the [local] cells of different criminal groups,” state prosecutor Adrian López told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. Mr López said the gangs, which he did not name, are “fighting for territorial control over the production, distribution and consumption of drugs”.
SPORTS Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac have been left out of Arsenal’s squad the Premier League because of “further security incidents” The pair were involved in a carjacking attempt by an armed gang in north-west London a fortnight ago. Arsenal say they are liaising with police and “providing the players and their families with ongoing support”. “The welfare of our players and their families is always a top priority,” the club added. “We have taken this decision following discussion with the players and their representatives. “We look forward to welcoming the players back to the squad as soon as possible.” Ozil and Kolasinac were left out of a friendly against Lyon following the attempted carjacking, but both featured in the final pre-season game against Barcelona on Sunday.The latest incidents are being investigated by police. England has dropped Moeen Ali and replaced him with Jack Leach for the second Ashes game Off-spinner Moeen returned match figures of 3-172 and scored only four runs in the 251-run defeat in the first Test at Edgbaston. Jofra Archer is likely to make his Test debut, with pace bowlers James Anderson and Olly Stone missing through injury. The second Test of the five-match series begins on 14 August. Leach, who has played five Tests, was man of the match when England beat Ireland at Lord’s in July after making 92 as a nightwatchman. Archer was named in the squad for the first Test but was left out of the team to give him more time to recover from a side strain. Donald Trump says he would “love to see” Colin Kaepernick play in the NFL again “if he’s good enough” Kaepernick has been without a team since opting out of his San Francisco 49ers contract in March 2017. In 2016 he began kneeling for the national anthem in protest against racial injustice in the USA, with other players following suit, leading to criticism from Trump . Earlier this week, Kaepernick said he was “still ready” to play in the NFL. “I’d love to see Kaepernick come in – if he’s good enough,” said Trump. “But I don’t want to see him come in because somebody thinks it’s a good PR move. If he’s good enough, he will be in. “I know the owners, I know [New England Patriots owner] Bob Kraft, I know so many of the owners. If he’s good enough, they’d sign him. “So if he’s good enough, they would sign him in a heartbeat. They will do anything they can to win games.” TECHNOLOGY Amazon has pledged to investigate allegations that hundreds of teenagers are working illegal hours at its Chinese factory A new report by China Labor Watch claims more than 1,500 “interns” were manufacturing the smart assistants at a factory run by supplier Foxconn. The teenagers, aged between 16 and 18, were reportedly pressured into work 60 hours a week and night shifts. Foxconn has blamed local managers and vowed to improve monitoring of staff. The company, which makes products for a number of technology giants, has allegedly fired two senior staff members at the site in Hengyang, Bloomberg reports. It is the latest in a string of controversies surrounding working conditions at the manufacturer, which is headquartered in Taiwan. In 2017, it emerged some students were working illegal overtime at another Foxconn facility making Apple iPhone Xs. Uber’s second quarter report reveals that they are operating on a $5.2 billion net losses Net losses for Uber soared to $5.24 billion in second-quarter of 2019, largely owing to stock-based compensation. The losses represent the company’s largest-ever quarterly loss. Meanwhile, revenue, for its part, is up only 14% year-over-year, igniting concerns over slower-than-ever growth. Notably, Uber has disclosed earnings for the second time since becoming a public company, reporting revenues of $3.16 billion. The company claims that a majority of 2Q losses are a result of stock-based compensation expenses for employees following its May IPO. Even if we keep stock compensation aside, Uber still lost $1.3 billion, up 30% from last quarter. As the company states in the investor blog, “We think that 2019 will be our peak investment year and we think that 2020, 2021, you’ll see losses come down. I think our break-even is something that we can push the company to break even if we really wanted to frankly.” WhatsApp plans to test an Instagram-style Boomerang feature for it’s application Getting inspiration from the idea and seeing its popularity in youth, yet another Facebook-owned company — WhatsApp is testing this feature. According to WABetainfo, WhatsApp is currently developing a new feature called Boomerang. The feature will let users loop videos that are less than seven seconds in length. Reportedly, the WhatsApp team is working on a Boomerang-style feature for iOS. But the rumors do exist that WhatsApp will soon add the functionality for Android users as well. It is worth mentioning here that to create a Boomerang video, users need to tap on the circle at the bottom of the screen. You can tap or swipe the screen to switch between your phone’s rear and front-facing cameras. ENTERTAINMENT Hareem Farooq thinks that everyone should cut Pakistani cinema some slack, given it’s only 6 years old During a recent interview with Haroon Rashid of BBC Asian Network, She spoke up about the Pakistani film industry and how the cinema-going culture is declining.When asked about whether it’s okay to say ‘support local cinema’ even when folks say a film is terrible, she replied, “I’d say that’s true. You need to own everything right now.” She went on to say, “Bollywood, Hollywood, Tamilwood, they’re centuries old, while Pakistani cinema is probably just six years old. We talk about making something out of our country, and we want to take our cinema abroad. We want to tell people that what you get to see in the news is not Pakistan or the one you get to hear about from people who don’t even know what Pakistan is, right? You need to tell people that this is Pakistan; it is beautiful, it has colours, it has talent, it has everything.” “So, even if there is a bad film, you need to understand and our audiences need to understand, that we don’t have the technicians, the writers, or even the actors for films. Everyone is learning and the only reason why people are doing films is passion and it’s just purely passion, trust me on this.” Taylor Swift says being “cancelled” after her row with Kim Kardashian was a “very isolating experience” After the release of Kanye West’s song Famous in 2016, which references having sex with Taylor, she said she didn’t approve of some of the lyrics. But when a video posted by Kim K seemingly showed the opposite, she was targeted by a campaign to “cancel” her. Taylor told Vogue magazine receiving messages like that could be perceived as being told “to kill yourself. When you say someone is cancelled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly,” The row gained a lot of attention across the media and led to hashtags including #TaylorSwiftIsCancelled. The singer said she had to make music about it immediately. “I knew it was the only way I could survive it. It was the only way I could preserve my mental health.” Lady Gaga has been accused of copying ‘Shallow,’ from a Soundcloud artist Songwriter Steve Ronsen has accused Lady Gaga of copying one of his compositions in her Oscar and Grammy-winning song, “Shallow.”Ronsen believes a three-note progression in his 2012 song “Almost” was duplicated in the A Star Is Born hit. However, a source tells Us Weekly multiple musicologists reviewed the two songs and found no material similarities. The insider adds that the melodic combination is “common” and can be heard in tracks “from centuries ago.Lady Gaga is outraged by these false claims and will not back down in any way,” the insider tells Us. According to Page Six, Gaga, 33, could face a lawsuit stemming from the alleged similarities of the melodies.Gaga’s lawyer Orin Snyder denied the plagiarism accusations. “Mr. Ronsen and his lawyer are trying to make easy money off the back of a successful artist. It is shameful and wrong,” he told Us. “I applaud Lady Gaga for having the courage and integrity to stand up on behalf of successful artists who find themselves on the receiving end of such [claims]. Should Mr. Shirian proceed with this case, Lady Gaga will fight it vigorously and will prevail.”

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