ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is preparing for its first census in 19 years. Here are some facts about the sixth most populous nation in the world.
For the first time, transsexual people will be counted separately, according to representatives of this historically recognized but often persecuted community in Pakistan.
The forms had been printed well in advance of court decisions to include them in the count. Now enumerators have been informed that those surveyed will have three numeric choices for their gender: 1 for men, 2 for women, 3 for those who declare themselves transsexuals.
Language is considered an essential tool in evaluating the makeup of multi-ethnic Pakistan — but only nine of the country’s estimated 70 will be listed, to the dismay of many communities.
No regional languages from sparsely populated Gilgit-Baltistan will be included nor will Gujrati — spoken by some Muslim immigrants from India who believe the lack of recognition will drive their mother-tongue toward oblivion.
The census will provide an insight into the true number of religious minorities, especially Christians and Hindus. Estimates are approximate and disputed, ranging from 2 to 10 million for the former and 2.5 to 4.5 million for the latter.
Citizens can declare themselves Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Ahmadi — a branch of Islam considered heretic by the state.
Otherwise, they can be “members of scheduled castes” — members of marginalized Hindu families, or “other.” There are no separate options for Sikhs, Parsis or Baha’i.
One box asks households how many toilets they have — a particularly salient question in Pakistan, where the United Nations estimates up to 40 percent of people defecate in the open air with dramatic health consequences, especially for children.
The census gives two nationality options: Pakistani or foreign.
But the army, which will conduct a parallel count, plans to be more precise mainly because of the country’s Afghan refugees who are accused of everything from terrorism to trafficking.
Many local officials fear Afghans could be counted as local and skew demography in favor of ethnic Pashtuns, whose political parties would benefit as a result.
On the other hand, the estimated six million Pakistanis working abroad will not be counted. No information will be collected on internal migration — necessary to assess the political weight of a province where many people have moved for economic reasons.
This information will be the subject of a separate subsequent survey based on a large sample of the population, according to authorities.
Pakistan census: A third sex, nine languages, many faiths
Pakistan census: A third sex, nine languages, many faiths
Large areas of Spain and Portugal hit by massive power blackout
Authorities were unable to explain the cause of the outage at least an hour after it occurred, though a possible cyberattack had not been ruled out and investigations were ongoing, officials said. A crisis committee was set up in Spain to manage the situation, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Spanish and Portuguese governments convened emergency cabinet meetings after the outage, which also briefly affected a part of France, which borders northeastern Spain.
Portugal’s utility REN confirmed a cut in electricity across the Iberian Peninsula that also affected part of France, while Spanish grid operator Red Electrica said it was working with regional energy companies to restore power.
“All plans for the phased restoration of energy supply are being activated, in coordination with European energy producers and operators,” a REN spokesperson said.
“REN is in permanent contact with official entities, namely the National Civil Protection Authority. At the same time, the possible causes of this incident are being assessed.”
Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.
Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams at Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.
Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.
One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.
Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.
Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.
Lisbon’s subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.
A source at Portugal’s TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.
In France, grid operator RTE said there was a brief outage but power had been restored. It was investigating the cause.
Russia declares a ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 for WWII Victory Day
- The Kremlin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the full cessation of hostilities on “humanitarian grounds” for the Victory Day on May 9
- Putin had refused to accept a complete unconditional ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Ukraine’s mobilization effort
KYIV: The Kremlin on Monday declared a full ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 as Russia celebrates the Victory Day over Nazi Germany.
The truce will start at 0000 on May 8 (2100 GMT May 7) and last through May 10. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the full cessation of hostilities on “humanitarian grounds” for the Victory Day on May 9.
It comes as US President Donald Trump’s scaled up efforts to broker a peace deal in Ukraine. Until that moment, Putin had refused to accept a complete unconditional ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Ukraine’s mobilization effort.
Trump struggles to make good on promises to quickly end Ukraine and Gaza wars
- Trump’s inability to broker deals in Ukraine and Gaza to date might be the most demonstrable evidence his effort to more broadly shake up US foreign policy
WASHINGTON: Ahead of his second go-around in the White House, President Donald Trump spoke with certainty about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of his new administration and finding lasting peace from the devastating 18-month conflict in Gaza.
But as the Republican president nears the 100th day of his second term, he’s struggling to make good on two of his biggest foreign policy campaign promises and is not taking well to suggestions that he’s falling short. And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year’s campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump now finds himself giving diplomacy a chance as he tries to curb Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taken so long?’” Trump bristled, when asked about the Ukraine war in a Time magazine interview about his first 100 days. As for the Gaza conflict, he insisted the war “would have never happened. Ever. You then say, ‘What’s taking so long?’“
Measuring a US president by his first 100 days in office is an arbitrary, albeit time-honored, tradition in Washington. And brokering peace deals between intractable warring parties is typically the work of years, not weeks.
But no other president has promised to do as much out of the gate as Trump, who is pursuing a seismic makeover of America’s approach to friends and foes during his second turn in the White House.
Trump has moved at dizzying speed to shift the rules-based world order that has formed the basis for global stability and security in the aftermath of World War II.
All sides have scrambled to acclimate as Trump launched a global tariff war and slashed US foreign aid all while talking up the ideas of taking Greenland from NATO ally Denmark and making Canada the 51st state.
But Trump’s inability to broker deals in Ukraine and Gaza — at least to date — might be the most demonstrable evidence that his effort to quickly shake up US foreign policy through sheer will could have its limits.
And Trump hasn’t obscured his frustration, particularly over the Ukraine war, which he’s long dismissed as a waste of US taxpayer money and of lives lost in the conflict.
The president and his team have gone hot and cold about prospects for peace in Ukraine since Trump’s Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
In that encounter, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance lectured the Ukrainian leader for being insufficiently grateful for US assistance in the fight to repel Russia’s invading forces before asking him to leave the White House grounds.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the White House is ready to walk away if Ukraine and Russia don’t make substantial progress toward a peace deal soon.
And Trump on back-to-back days this past week lambasted Zelensky for “prolonging” the “killing field” and then Russian President Vladimir Putin for complicating negotiations with “very bad timing” in launching brutal strikes that pummeled Kyiv.
But by Friday, Trump was expressing optimism again after his special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow with Putin. Following the talks, Trump declared that the two sides were “very close to a deal.”
Less than 24 hours later, Trump was once again downcast after he met with Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral, expressing doubt in a social media post that Putin was serious about forging a deal.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” Trump said of Putin and Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukraine.
Trump again expressed frustration with Putin in an exchange with reporters on Sunday evening. “I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe. And I want him to sign it and be done with it.”
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Trump remains committed to getting a deal done and is “closer to that objective than at any point during Joe Biden’s presidency.”
“Within 100 days, President Trump has gotten both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table with the aim to bring this horrific war to a peaceful resolution,” Hewitt said. “It is no longer a question of if this war will end but when.”
Peace in Gaza remains elusive
Trump started his second term with some momentum on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
His envoy Witkoff, a fellow New York real estate maverick turned high-stakes diplomat, teamed up with the outgoing Biden Middle East adviser Brett McGurk to get Israeli and Hamas officials to agree to a temporary ceasefire deal that went into effect one day before Trump’s inauguration.
On the eve of his return to office, Trump took full credit for what he called an “epic” agreement that would lead to a “lasting peace” in the Middle East.
The temporary ceasefire led to the freeing of 33 hostages held in Gaza and the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But the truce collapsed in March, and fighting resumed, with the two sides unable to come to an agreement for the return of 59 remaining hostages, more that half of whom Israeli officials believe are dead.
Conditions in Gaza remain bleak. Israel has cut off all aid to the territory and its more than 2 million people. Israel has disputed that there is a shortage of aid in Gaza and says it’s entitled to block the assistance because, it claims, Hamas seizes the goods for its own use.
Trump, as he flew to Rome on Friday for the pope’s funeral, told reporters that he’s pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “very hard” to get food and medicine into Gaza but dismissed questions about how the Israeli leader is responding to his appeal.
“Well, he knows all about it, OK?” Trump told reporters.
Hewitt, the National Security Council spokesman, pushed back on the notion that Trump has fallen short on his effort to find an endgame to the Gaza conflict, setting the blame squarely on Hamas.
“While we continue to work to secure the release of all remaining hostages, Hamas has chosen violence over peace, and President Trump has ensured that Hamas continues to face the gates of hell until it releases the hostages and disarms,” Hewitt said.
Trump’s team says the president has racked up more foreign policy wins than any other US president this early in a term.
The White House counts among its early victories invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being gang members, securing the release of at least 46 Americans detained abroad, and carrying out hundreds of military strikes in Yemen against Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
Trump hopeful for Iran nuclear deal breakthrough
The White House this month also launched direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, a renewed push to solve another of the most delicate foreign policy issues facing the White House and the Middle East.
Trump says his administration is making progress in its effort to secure a deal with Iran to scupper Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Witkoff flew directly from meeting with Putin in Moscow to Muscat, Oman, to take part in talks on Saturday, the third engagement between US and Iranian officials this month.
The US and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
Since Trump pulled out of the Obama-era deal, Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.
The president said on Friday that he’s open to meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian, while also indicating military action — something that US ally Israel has advocated — remains an option.
As Trump increasingly expresses his preference for diplomacy rather than military action, Iran hawks at home are urging him to tread carefully in his hunt for a legacy-defining deal.
“The Iranians would have the talking point that they forced the same person who left the deal many years later, after them resisting maximum pressure, into an equal or worse deal,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
But Trump wants a solution, and fast.
“I think a deal is going to be made there,” Trump said Sunday “That’s going to happen pretty soon.”
Conclave to elect new pope starts May 7: Vatican
- The date for the conclave has not yet been set but it can only begin after a nine-day period of mourning
- For inspiration they will also have the great beauty of the frescos painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists
VATICAN CITY: Catholic cardinals meeting in Rome on Monday have set May 7 as the start date for the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, the Vatican spokesman said.
The cardinals will take part in a solemn mass at St Peter’s Basilica, after which those eligible to vote will gather in the Sistine Chapel for the secretive ballot, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
The Vatican on Monday closed the Sistine Chapel to begin preparations for the conclave, during which Catholic cardinals from around the world cast ballots to elect a new pope.
“Notice is hereby given that the Sistine Chapel will be closed to the public as of Monday 28 April 2025 for the requirements of the conclave,” the Vatican Museums said on its website, ahead of an expected announcement of the conclave date.
Gerry Adams’ defamation case against BBC opens in Dublin
- A BBC Northern Ireland ‘Spotlight’ investigation broadcast in 2016 alleged that Adams sanctioned the 2006 murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson
DUBLIN: A defamation case brought by former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams against the BBC over a program alleging he was involved in killing a British spy opened in Dublin on Monday.
A BBC Northern Ireland “Spotlight” investigation broadcast in 2016 alleged that Adams sanctioned the 2006 murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson.
At a press conference in 2005, Adams revealed that Donaldson spied for the British intelligence agency MI5.
The 55-year-old, who later admitted working as a British agent, was found shot dead in County Donegal, where he lived close to the Northern Ireland border.
In 2009, dissident Irish republican paramilitary group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the murder.
The BBC program featured testimonies that claimed Adams sanctioned the killing.
Adams denies the accusations and is suing the BBC for damages over the “Spotlight” episode and an article on the BBC website that he alleges are defamatory.
The case at Dublin’s High Court is expected to last around three weeks.
In total, more than 3,600 people were killed during Northern Ireland’s sectarian conflict known as the “Troubles,” which largely ended after a 1998 peace accord.
In 2018 Adams stepped down as leader of Sinn Fein – the pro-Irish unity paramilitary IRA’s political wing during the Troubles – and has always denied being a member of the IRA.
