Cabinet approves ferry services for pilgrims from Karachi, Gwadar, and Bin Qasim ports

The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved initiating ferry services at three ports — Karachi, Gwadar, and Bin Qasim — in a bid to facilitate pilgrims headed to Iraq and Iran.

The pilgrims will be able to avail immigration services at these points, a post-cabinet meeting press release said.

Furthermore, Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, announced that in pursuance of Prime Minister Imran Khan's Blue Economy policy, the ministry has been allowed to "start ferry/passenger ships to all possible destinations across the world".

"Maritime frontiers now open for sea travel," he said.

Briefing the media about other decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting today, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said that approval for expanding the network of shelter homes across the country to facilitate the downtrodden people was given.

"The idea of [shelter homes] is one very close to Prime Minister Imran Khans's heart, as he believes in providing a dignified place of living to the poor," he said.

Speaking about the outstanding payments to the media houses, the information minister said that at least Rs1.1 billion rupees were paid to them so far.

Responding to a question, Faraz said that the government was making all possible efforts to reduce the impact of inflation in the wake of COVID-19.

The federal minister said the cabinet also held a detailed discussion on the situation that has emerged in Karachi and interior Sindh after heavy rains lashed the province.

"The cabinet has constituted a special committee to estimate the losses incurred due to rains," he said.

According to a statement from the PM's Office, the premier said that there was a need to come up with a comprehensive policy to provide relief to the people affected during the recent rains.

He said that the National Disaster Management Authority has been tasked with working alongside the provincial governments to assess the damage caused.

The premier, talking about the Karachi Transformation Plan, said that the metropolis plays the role of an "engine of growth" for the country's economy.

"The Centre is determined to resolve the issues of Karachi," he said.

A plan of action in accordance with the agreement made with independent power producers (IPPs) needs to be drafted, the meeting noted.

"As a result of deals made with IPPs, more than Rs100 billion will be saved annually," it was observed by the cabinet.

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Typhoon hits South Korea after triggering landslides in Japan

A powerful typhoon lashed South Korea on Monday after smashing into southern Japan with record winds and heavy rains that left up to eight people dead or missing.

More than 300,000 households were still without power on Monday afternoon after Typhoon Haishen roared past Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, ripping off roofs and dumping half a metre (20 inches) of water in just a day.

Rescue workers were picking through mud and detritus seeking four missing people after a landslide in rural Miyazaki.

Dozens of police officers were on their way to help, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo.

At least one person had been killed by the typhoon, he said, with the causes of another three deaths during the storm not immediately known.

Haishen, which came on the heels of another powerful typhoon, crashed into Okinawa on Saturday and moved northwards throughout Sunday.

Around 1.8 million people were told to seek shelter for fear that the 200-kilometre-per-hour (135-mile-per-hour) winds would wreak havoc on Japan’s wooden housing stock.

By lunchtime on Monday, the storm had moved over South Korea, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and triggering landslides.

Traffic lights and trees were felled in and around Busan, streets were flooded and power was knocked out for around 20,000 homes across the country.

The typhoon cut electricity to Hyundai Motor’s assembly lines in the city of Ulsan, bringing production to a halt for several hours.

Haishen churned its way up the eastern side of the peninsula into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, having lost some of its destructive force, but still packing winds of up to 112 kilometres per hour.

The streets of the port city of Sokcho were largely empty, but some residents braved the rain and wind to take photos and marvel at the swell crashing into the harbour wall.

Outside the city, swollen rivers surged through the countryside carrying debris and the occasional fallen tree.

Haishen was forecast to make landfall again in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province in North Korea, at around midnight, according to South Korea’s Meteorological Administration.

Pyongyang’s state media have been on high alert, carrying live broadcasts of the situation, with one showing a reporter driving through a windy, inundated street in Tongchon, Kangwon province.

“Now is the time when we must be on our highest alert,” he said, adding that winds were as powerful as 126 kilometres per hour.

State broadcaster KCTV showed flooded streets and trees shaking from the strong gusts. North Korea is still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Maysak last week.

Leader Kim Jong Un appeared in state media over the weekend inspecting the damage. He also sacked a top provincial official in South Hamgyong.

He ordered 12,000 ruling party members in Pyongyang to help with recovery efforts, and the official KCNA news agency reported that around 300,000 had responded to his call.

The North’s state media have yet to specify how many people Maysak left missing, injured or dead.

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China’s first reusable spacecraft lands after 2-day flight

China’s first reusable spacecraft landed on Sunday after two days in orbit, a possible step toward lower-cost space flight, the government announced.

The secretive, military-run space program has released few details of the craft, which was launched Friday aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s desert northwest.

The craft landed as planned at Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

State media have yet to publish any photos. The craft’s size and shape are unclear.

The flight “marks an important breakthrough in our country’s research on reusable spacecraft” that promise a “more convenient and inexpensive way” to reach space, Xinhua said.

China fired its first astronaut into orbit in 2003 and has launched a space station. Last year, it became the first country to land a robot rover on the moon’s little-seen far side. A probe carrying another robot rover is en route to Mars.

The United States and the former Soviet Union both flew reusable spacecraft.

The US space shuttle flew 134 missions from the 1980s until 2011. Since then, the US military has developed the X-37, a robot glider that made its sixth flight in May.

The Soviet space plane, Buran, orbited the Earth twice during its single unscrewed flight in 1988.

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Typhoon hits South Korea after triggering landslides in Japan

A powerful typhoon lashed South Korea on Monday after smashing into southern Japan with record winds and heavy rains that left up to eight people dead or missing.

More than 300,000 households were still without power on Monday afternoon after Typhoon Haishen roared past Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, ripping off roofs and dumping half a metre (20 inches) of water in just a day.

Rescue workers were picking through mud and detritus seeking four missing people after a landslide in rural Miyazaki.

Dozens of police officers were on their way to help, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo.

At least one person had been killed by the typhoon, he said, with the causes of another three deaths during the storm not immediately known.

Haishen, which came on the heels of another powerful typhoon, crashed into Okinawa on Saturday and moved northwards throughout Sunday.

Around 1.8 million people were told to seek shelter for fear that the 200-kilometre-per-hour (135-mile-per-hour) winds would wreak havoc on Japan’s wooden housing stock.

By lunchtime on Monday, the storm had moved over South Korea, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and triggering landslides.

Traffic lights and trees were felled in and around Busan, streets were flooded and power was knocked out for around 20,000 homes across the country.

The typhoon cut electricity to Hyundai Motor’s assembly lines in the city of Ulsan, bringing production to a halt for several hours.

Haishen churned its way up the eastern side of the peninsula into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, having lost some of its destructive force, but still packing winds of up to 112 kilometres per hour.

The streets of the port city of Sokcho were largely empty, but some residents braved the rain and wind to take photos and marvel at the swell crashing into the harbour wall.

Outside the city, swollen rivers surged through the countryside carrying debris and the occasional fallen tree.

Haishen was forecast to make landfall again in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province in North Korea, at around midnight, according to South Korea’s Meteorological Administration.

Pyongyang’s state media have been on high alert, carrying live broadcasts of the situation, with one showing a reporter driving through a windy, inundated street in Tongchon, Kangwon province.

“Now is the time when we must be on our highest alert,” he said, adding that winds were as powerful as 126 kilometres per hour.

State broadcaster KCTV showed flooded streets and trees shaking from the strong gusts. North Korea is still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Maysak last week.

Leader Kim Jong Un appeared in state media over the weekend inspecting the damage. He also sacked a top provincial official in South Hamgyong.

He ordered 12,000 ruling party members in Pyongyang to help with recovery efforts, and the official KCNA news agency reported that around 300,000 had responded to his call.

The North’s state media have yet to specify how many people Maysak left missing, injured or dead.

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China displays Covid-19 vaccines for first time

China has put its homegrown coronavirus vaccines on display for the first time, as the country where the contagion was discovered looks to shape the narrative surrounding the pandemic.

High hopes hang on the small vials of liquid on show at a Beijing trade fair this week — vaccine candidates produced by Chinese companies Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm.

Neither has hit the market yet but the makers hope they will be approved after all-important phase 3 trials as early as year-end.

A Sinovac representative said his firm has already “completed the construction of a vaccine factory” able to produce 300 million doses a year.

On Monday, people at the trade fair crowded around booths showing the potential game-changing vaccines.

China, which is facing a storm of foreign criticism over its early handling of the pandemic, has been trying to repurpose the story of Covid-19.

State media and officials are now emphasising the revival of Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the deadly pathogen surfaced, as a success story in the fight against the virus.

They are also touting progress on domestic vaccines as a sign of Chinese leadership and resilience in the face of an unprecedented health threat that has pummelled the global economy.

In May, President Xi Jinping pledged to make any potential vaccine developed by China a “global public good”.

The potential vaccines on display are among nearly 10 worldwide to enter phase 3 trials, typically the last step ahead of regulatory approval, as countries race to stub out the virus and reboot battered economies.

Sinopharm said it anticipates the antibodies from its jab to last between one and three years — although the final result will only be known after the trials.

China’s nationalistic tabloid Global Times reported last month that “the price of the vaccines will not be high”.

Every two doses should cost below 1,000 yuan ($146), the report said, citing Sinopharm’s chairman, who told media he has already been injected with one of the candidate vaccines.

China’s official Xinhua news agency reported Monday that another vaccine candidate, developed by Chinese military scientists, can deal with mutations in the coronavirus.

As of last month, at least 5.7 billion doses of the vaccines under development around the world had been pre-ordered.

But the World Health Organisation has warned that widespread immunisation against Covid-19 may not be on the cards until the middle of next year.

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Esra Bilgic looks ethereal in yellow and white outfit

Esra Bilgic, who essays the role of Halime Sultan in Turkish historical drama series Dirilis: Ertugrul, looked stunning in the photo wherein she can be seen sporting yellow and white ensembles.

In the dazzling picture circulating on social media, Esra Bilgic aka Halime Sultan looked drop dead gorgeous and the photo has taken the internet by storm.

The stunning photo has won the hearts of the fans on social media.

The latest picture has been shared thousands of times on the fan pages of the Turkish star.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Esra Bilgic will next be seen in crime drama Ramo. The second season of the series will premiere in the last week of September.

Esra’s popularity skyrocketed after Dirilis: Ertugrul started airing in Pakistan in Urdu dubbing.

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Sarfaraz Ahmed had 'deep reservations' against playing 3rd T20I against England: report

Second-choice wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed had reportedly refused to play the third and final T20I against England in Manchester last week and only agreed after being talked into it by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, batting coach Younis Khan and captain Babar Azam.

In a stunning revelation, sources privy to the matter have said that the usually reserved Sarfaraz finally ran out of patience when the management decided to play him in the final match of the T20 series after keeping him on the bench for the entire tour.

At this, Sarfaraz had purportedly expressed “deep” reservations and refused to play the match, only to be persuaded to reconsider upon the think tank’s guarantees.

Misbah said that Sarfaraz had not refused to play but only “expressed his reservations”, which he said was something “I would also have done if I were in his position.”

The head coach further said that "any player can have concerns when given the final match of a tour and that’s what Sarfaraz also had.”

“He had pressure that if things don’t go his way then he could be in trouble,” Misbah said.

However, the former Pakistan captain, who now plays second fiddle to Mohammad Rizwan, was assured that “even if your performance is not the same, you will still remain a part of the team.”

It is pertinent to mention that in the same press conference Misbah had unequivocally declared Rizwan as the number one and Sarfaraz the understudy.

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