ISLAMABAD: Forget Hollywood, forget Bollywood — one of the first films to hit Saudi screens when cinemas reopen next year will be from Pakistan.
Parchi is an ensemble action/thriller-comedy starring Hareem Farooq, Ali Rehman Khan and Shafqat Cheema.
“We feel honored and proud that we are among the first, it’s pretty exciting and it is quite an achievement,” Farooq, also a co-producer of the movie, told Arab News.
“We always aim to do something new and expand our reach, not just stick to Pakistan.”
Pakistan is noted for outstanding drama and television plays, but film has lacked investment, storylines, direction and quality content. Now, however, the movie business is enjoying a revival.
The impact of going international is not lost on Farooq. “I think it’s proof that Pakistani cinema has international appeal, it shows that we are on the right track and that we do have a great future.”
In addition to commercial success, films are changing some of the conversation about Pakistan. “We always want to put Pakistan on the global map in a good light, that is what we work for,” Farooq said.
“Cinema is a platform that can change mindsets — it’s huge and plays a mighty role in our image projection abroad. All the world sees is extremism and terrorism, they don’t get to see what Pakistan is really about.
“We are as crazy and as normal as everywhere else.”
The soundtrack from Parchi has been well received, and the first single, Billo Hai, already has more than a million views on YouTube. The movie itself will be released on Jan. 5 in Pakistan and the UAE, and Jan.12 in the US. Cinemas in Saudi Arabia will reopen early next year after a 35-year ban.
Arab News has emailed the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information for a confirmation about the film but no response has been received by the time of printing.
Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
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Senate GOP pushes ahead with budget bill that funds Trump’s mass deportations and border wall
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- This is the first step in unlocking Trump’s campaign promises — tax cuts, energy production and border controls — and dominating the agenda in Congress
WASHINGTON: Senate Republicans pushed ahead late Tuesday on a scaled-back budget bill, a $340 billion package to give the Trump administration money for mass deportations and other priorities, as Democrats prepare a counter-campaign against the onslaught of actions coming from the White House.
On a party-line vote, 50-47, Republicans launched the process, skipping ahead of the House Republicans who prefer President Donald Trump’s approach for a “big, beautiful bill” that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that are tops on the party agenda. Senate Republicans plan to deal with tax cuts later, in a second package.
“It’s time to act,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on social media, announcing the plan ahead as the House is on recess week. “Let’s get it done.”
This is the first step in unlocking Trump’s campaign promises — tax cuts, energy production and border controls — and dominating the agenda in Congress. While Republicans have majority control of both the House and Senate, giving a rare sweep of Washington power, they face big hurdles trying to put the president’s agenda into law over steep Democratic objections.
It’s coming as the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency effort is slashing costs across government departments, leaving a trail of fired federal workers and dismantling programs on which many Americans depend. Democrats, having floundered amid the initial chaos coming from the White House, emerged galvanized as they try to warn Americans what’s at stake.
“These bills that they have have one purpose — and that is they’re trying to give a tax break to their billionaire buddies and have you, the average American person, pay for it,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told AP. “It is outrageous.”
Schumer convened a private weekend call with Democratic senators and emerged with a strategy to challenge Republicans for prioritizing tax cuts that primarily flow to the wealthy at the expense of program and service cuts to US health care, scientific research, veterans services and other programs.
As the Senate begins the cumbersome budget process this week — which entails an initial 50 hours of debate followed by an expected all-night session with dozens if not 100 or more efforts to amend the package in what’s called a vote-a-rama — Democrats are preparing to drill down on those issues.
The Senate GOP package would allow $175 billion to be spent on border security, including funding for mass deportation operations and to build the wall along the US-Mexico border; a $150 billion boost to the Pentagon for defense spending; and $20 billion for the Coast Guard.
Republicans are determined to push ahead after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and top aide Stephen Miller told senators privately last week they are running short of cash to accomplish the president’s mass deportations and other border priorities.
The Senate Budget Committee said the package would cost about $85.5 billion a year, for four years of Trump’s presidency, paid for with new reductions and revenues elsewhere that other committees will draw up.
Eyeing ways to pay for the package, Senate Republicans are considering a rollback of the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee, which was approved by Democrats as part of climate change strategies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and hoping to draw new revenue from energy leases as they aim to spur domestic energy production.
While the House and Senate budget resolutions are often considered simply statements of policy priorities, these could actually become law.
The budget resolutions are being considered under what’s called the reconciliation process, which allows passage on a simple majority vote without many of the procedural hurdles that stall bills. Once rare, reconciliation is increasingly being used in the House and Senate to pass big packages on party-line votes when one party controls the White House and Congress.
During Trump’s first term, Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass the GOP tax cuts in 2017. Democrats used reconciliation during the Biden presidency era to approve COVID relief and also the Inflation Reduction Act.
Brazil prosecutor charges Bolsonaro over failed coup bid
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- Bolsonaro has denied the accusations and said he was the victim of “persecution”
BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s attorney general on Tuesday formally charged far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and 33 others over an alleged coup attempt after his 2022 election loss.
Bolsonaro, 69, and his co-accused were hit with five charges over the alleged bid to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after a bitter election race.
Attorney General Paulo Gonet Branco filed the charges at the Supreme Court “based on manuscripts, digital files, spreadsheets and exchanges of messages that reveal the scheme to disrupt the democratic order,” his office said in a statement.
“They describe, in detail, the conspiratorial plot set up and executed against democratic institutions.”
One of the charges is for the crime of “armed criminal organization,” allegedly led by Bolsonaro and his vice presidential candidate Walter Braga Netto.
“Allied with other individuals, including civilians and military personnel, they attempted to prevent, in a coordinated manner, the result of the 2022 presidential elections from being fulfilled,” read the statement.
The prosecutor’s office based its decision on a federal police report of over 800 pages, released last year after a two-year investigation which found Bolsonaro was “fully aware and actively participated” in the plot to cling to power.
Bolsonaro has denied the accusations and said he was the victim of “persecution.”
According to the statement from Branco’s office, the plot began in 2021, with “systematic attacks on the electronic voting system, through public statements and on the Internet.”
During the second round of the presidential election in October 2022, security agencies were mobilized to “prevent voters from voting for the opposition candidate,” said the statement.
Those involved at this stage worked to facilitate “the acts of violence and vandalism on January 8, 2023,” when Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.
The attorney general’s office said the criminal organization headed by Bolsonaro had pressured army chiefs “in favor of forceful actions in the political scene to prevent the elected president from taking office.”
Investigations also showed a plot to assassinate Lula, vice president Geraldo Alckmin and a high-profile judge with “the approval of” Bolsonaro.
According to the statement, the January 8 riots by Bolsonaro supporters urging the military to intervene were “the final attempt.”
The Supreme Court will now weigh the charges and decide whether to initiate proceedings against Bolsonaro.
Hours before the charges were filed, Bolsonaro told journalists in the capital Brasilia that he had “no concern” about the possibility of being indicted.
Olympic organizing team unveiled for 2030 Winter Games in French Alps
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- A bid hastily pulled together in 2023 was approved by the International Olympic Committee only last July — in Paris on the eve of a hugely successful Summer Game
- The project is now led by Edgar Grospiron, a freestyle skiing gold medalist in 1992 when France last hosted the Winter Games and a late hire in recent days as president of the organizing committee
- The French Alps organizing committee has a prudent operational budget of €2 billion ($2.1 billion)
LYON, France: Just five years before the opening ceremony, French organizers of the 2030 Winter Games put on a united front Tuesday to unveil the team given the tightest schedule of any modern Olympics.
The 2030 French Alps Olympics must tie together snow and sliding venues in the mountains with skating and curling arenas among the palm trees on the Riviera coastal city Nice.
A bid hastily pulled together in 2023 was approved by the International Olympic Committee only last July — in Paris on the eve of a hugely successful Summer Games — and even then with a special exemption to wait several months for guarantees from the national government.
The project is now led by Edgar Grospiron, a freestyle skiing gold medalist in 1992 when France last hosted the Winter Games and a late hire in recent days as president of the organizing committee.
“What’s important now is that from now we organize it, we deliver it,” Grospiron said at a slick launch event at the stadium of soccer club Lyon, aiming for a Winter Games that is “impeccable and irreproachable.”
Grospiron spoke after a parade of national and regional political figures, including sports minister Marie Barsacq and Michel Barnier, who as prime minister last October signed off the government’s support.
Layers of lawmakers’ support has been vital to a project that still needs an ice arena built in Nice and a venue for speed skating, which could end up in Italy or the Netherlands.
The popular success and expertise gained at the Paris Olympics was stressed as a foundation for the Winter Games which used to be given seven years by the IOC to organize.
“We are not starting from zero,” the IOC’s executive director of Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi, told The Associated Press. “We had a great shortcut and it’s called Paris 2024. Many of those things we can cut and paste.”
The IOC started 2023 with no clear candidate and a shrinking pool of options to host a cost-effective and sustainable Winter Games in 2030. A Swedish project centered on Stockholm seemed favored before a French bid emerged out of the IOC’s strong pre-Paris relations with President Emmanuel Macron and national Olympic officials.
France’s win was confirmed on the same day in Paris as the 2034 Winter Games were awarded to Salt Lake City with four extra years to prepare. Its organizing team was unveiled in Utah last week.
“We are the cradle of Olympism,” said David Lappartient, leader of the French Olympic body and a candidate in the IOC presidential election next month. France already hosted three Summer Games in Paris and three previous Winter Games: Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992 that Barnier helped organize.
The French Alps organizing committee has a prudent operational budget of €2 billion ($2.1 billion) and speakers Tuesday stressed the need for a project that was financially sober and in moderation.
A key theme also was adapting to climate change and delivering an Olympics and subsequent Paralympic Winter Games that are sustainable.
“I would never pretend that the games want to save the world,” Grospiron said, “but I think we can contribute to changing how it moves forward.”
Rising to environmental challenges was stressed by the head of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region that includes Nice and Marseille. Renaud Muselier cautioned that in dealing with the reality of climate change “defeatism has the same effect as skepticism.”
Israel-Gaza war fuels record level of anti-Muslim hatred in Britain, monitoring group says
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- The surge in hate incidents against Muslims due to Islamophobia has also been linked to the killing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport last summer, Tell MAMA said
LONDON: The number of anti-Muslim incidents in Britain rose to a new high in 2024, according to data compiled by monitoring organization Tell MAMA, which said the war in Gaza had “super-fueled” online hate.
Tell MAMA said it verified 5,837 anti-Muslim hate cases — a mix of both online and in-person incidents — last year, compared with 3,767 cases the year before and 2,201 in 2022.
The organization’s data goes back to 2012 and is compiled using data-sharing agreements with police forces in England and Wales.
“The Middle East conflict super-fueled online anti-Muslim hate,” the group said in a statement, adding that “the Israel and Gaza War, the Southport murders and riots ... created a surge in anti-Muslim hate cases reported to Tell MAMA from 2023-2024.”
Its director Iman Atta described the surge as unacceptable and deeply concerning for the future.
Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) describes itself as an independent, non-governmental organization which works on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Separate data last week showed levels of hatred toward Jews across Britain have also rocketed to record levels in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The surge in hate incidents against Muslims due to Islamophobia has also been linked to the killing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport last summer, Tell MAMA said.
False reports spread on social media that the killer, who has since been sentenced to at least 52 years behind bars, was a radical Islamist migrant, leading to racist riots involving far-right and anti-immigration groups across the country.
“We urge the public to stand together against hatred and extremism, and we urge those in positions of influence and public authority to consider how their language risks stereotyping communities,” Atta said, calling for coordinated government action to tackle anti-Muslim hate.
US Catholic bishops sue Trump administration for halt in funding for refugee settlement
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- The lawsuit said the government is attempting to “pull the rug out” from under the program, causing it longstanding damage
WASHINGTON: Catholic bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its abrupt halt to funding of refugee resettlement, calling the action unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees and to the nation’s largest private resettlement program.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops says the administration, by withholding millions even for reimbursements of costs incurred before the sudden cut-off of funding, violates various laws as well as the constitutional provision giving the power of the purse to Congress, which already approved the funding.
The conference’s Migration and Refugee Services has sent layoff notices to 50 workers, more than half its staff, with additional cuts expected in local Catholic Charities offices that partner with the national office, the lawsuit said.
“The Catholic Church always works to uphold the common good of all and promote the dignity of the human person, especially the most vulnerable among us,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB. “That includes the unborn, the poor, the stranger, the elderly and infirm, and migrants.” The funding suspension prevents the church from doing so, he said.
“The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” Broglio said.
The conference is trying to keep the program going, but it’s “financially unsustainable,” he said, adding that it’s trying to hold the US government to its “moral and legal commitments.”
The conference is one of 10 national agencies, most of them faith-based, that serve refugees and that have been sent scrambling since receiving a Jan. 24 State Department letter informing them of an immediate suspension of funding pending a review of foreign-aid programs.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that the resettlement program isn’t even foreign aid. It’s a domestic program to help newly arrived refugees — who arrive legally after being vetted overseas — meet initial needs such as housing and job placement.
“USCCB spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government, but it cannot sustain its programs without the millions in federal funding that provide the foundation of this private-public partnership,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit said the government is attempting to “pull the rug out” from under the program, causing it longstanding damage.
The lawsuit names the departments of State and Health and Human Services as well as their respective secretaries, Marco Rubio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both departments have roles in delegating resettlement work to the bishops conference.
There was no immediate reply in court from those departments.
The USCCB said it is still awaiting about $13 million in reimbursements for expenses prior to Jan. 24.
As of Jan. 25, it said, there were 6,758 refugees assigned by the government to USCCB’s care that had been in the country less than 90 days, the period of time for which they’re eligible for resettlement aid.
The conference said suspending the resettlement effort will only prolong the time it takes for refugees to find employment and become self-sufficient.