PESHAWAR: Unidentified attackers set ablaze 12 schools in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan on Thursday night, Diamer Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shah told Arab News.
Officials are surveying the damage, said Shah, who denied reports that explosives were used. A meeting of education, police and district administration officials was held on Friday, during which participants discussed the incident and took decisions on how to heighten school security in the area, he added.
There were no casualties as the schools were closed when they were attacked, Shah said. But Shabir Mir, a resident of Gilgit city, said the incident has caused panic among locals because the area is considered relatively peaceful.
“There has been no major law and order problem since the shootings of foreign tourists in 2013 and the killings of passengers of a bus in 2011. But the recent incident of arson attacks on schools has scared the local people,” he added.
12 schools set ablaze in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district
12 schools set ablaze in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district
- The arson attack has caused panic among local residents as the area is generally considered as peaceful
- The schools attacked were mostly girls' schools that were under-construction
Democrats slam latest version of Trump’s budget bill as anti-poor, Musk says it would destroy jobs and harm US
- Doubling down on his previous tirade, the president's billionaire supporter called the bill “utterly insane and destructive”
- "It will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich,” says Democrat leader Schumer
- Senate version would add $4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, including interest costs, says nonpartisan group
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill released by the US Senate, calling it “utterly insane and destructive.”
As Senate Republicans prepared to vote on the measure, Democrats warned that its tax-cut elements would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programs relied upon by lower-income Americans.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote in a post on X. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Musk's renewed his tirade against the proposed measure, called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, weeks after the world’s richest person and Trump, the world's most powerful, ended a feud sparked by Musk’s opposition to the bill.
Senate Republicans planned to vote Saturday on the bill after agreeing on changes to address concerns about funding for rural hospitals and the deductibility of state taxes.
Several Republican senators who had previously expressed hesitancy about voting for the bill told reporters that their concerns had been assuaged and that they were ready to vote to clear a first procedural hurdle in the coming hours.
Senator John Barrasso, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the first procedural vote on the legislation would take place shortly, though it did not start by 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), as he had predicted. The bill is Trump’s top legislative goal. With his fellow Republicans controlling both chambers, Congress has so far not rejected any of Trump’s priorities.
The 940-page megabill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security. Nonpartisan analysts estimate that a version passed by the House of Representatives last month would add about $3 trillion to the $36.2 trillion US government debt.
The Congressional Budget Office has not released a forecast for how much the Senate version — still subject to change — would add to the debt if enacted.
Partial to the wealthy
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, called for the bill’s full text to be read on the Senate floor after the vote, a procedure that was sure to run late into the night, if not past dawn.
“Under this draft Republicans will take food away from hungry kids to pay for tax breaks to the rich,” Schumer said. “Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt.”
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget public policy organization on Saturday said its preliminary estimate is that the Senate version would add $4 trillion to the debt over the next decade, including interest costs.
“If you thought the House bill borrowed too much — and it did — the Senate manages to make things even worse,” Maya MacGuineas, the group’s president, said in a statement.
The White House said this month that the legislation, titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would reduce the annual deficit by $1.4 trillion.
Ready to move forward
Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine, who had opposed concern about tax-code changes that could hurt rural hospitals, told reporters they were ready to move forward.
A successful vote would kick off a lengthy process that could run into Sunday, as Democrats unveil a series of amendments unlikely to pass in a chamber that Republicans control 53-47.
“By passing this bill now, we will make our nation more prosperous and secure,” Senate Budget Committee chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement accompanying the bill text.
Republicans from states with large rural populations have opposed a reduction in state tax revenue for Medicaid providers including rural hospitals. The newly released legislation would delay that reduction and would include $25 billion to support rural Medicaid providers from 2028 to 2032.
“If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to get and deliver for working-class people,” Hawley told reporters. “You cannot take away health care for working people.”
The legislation would raise the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes to $40,000 with an annual 1 percent inflation adjustment through 2029, after which it would fall back to the current $10,000. The bill would also phase the cap down for those earning more than $500,000 a year.
That is a major concern of House Republicans from coastal states including New York, New Jersey and California, who play an important role in keeping the party’s narrow House majority.
Republicans are using a legislative maneuver to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the 100-member chamber.
Narrow path
The narrow majorities for Republicans in the Senate and House mean they can afford no more than three no votes from the party in either chamber to advance a bill that Democrats are united in opposing.
Democrats will focus their firepower with amendments aimed at reversing Republican spending cuts to programs that provide government-backed health care to the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as food aid to low-income families.
The bill also would raise the Treasury Department’s debt ceiling by trillions of dollars to stave off a potentially disastrous default on the nation’s debt in the coming months. If the Senate passes the bill, it will then return to the House for another vote before Trump could sign it into law.
Trump slams Israel's prosecutors over Netanyahu corruption trial
- Trump suggested that given the billions of dollars worth of military aid Washington was providing to Israel, it was not going to “stand for this”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized Israel’s prosecutors over an ongoing corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was interfering with his ability to conduct talks with both Hamas and Iran.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump also suggested that given the billions of dollars worth of military aid Washington was providing to Israel, it was not going to “stand for this.”
India rejects statement by Pakistan seeking to blame it for Waziristan attack
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said
NEW DELHI: India’s ministry of external affairs said on Sunday it rejects a statement by the Pakistan Army seeking to blame India for Saturday’s attack in Waziristan.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a Pakistani military convoy in a town near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 soldiers, the Pakistan army said on Saturday. The convoy was attacked in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan district, the army said in a statement. “In this tragic and barbaric incident, three innocent civilians including two children and a woman also got severely injured,” it said.
Fourteen militants were killed by the army in an operation launched after the attack in the region, it said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said.
Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said in a statement any attempt to undermine Pakistan’s internal stability would be met with swift and decisive retribution.
“It was huge, a big bang,” a local administrator told Reuters, adding that residents of the town could see a large amount of smoke billowing from the scene from a great distance.
One resident said that the explosion rattled the windowpanes of nearby houses, and caused some roofs to collapse.
No one has so far claimed responsibility.
The lawless district, which sits next to Afghanistan, has long served as a safe haven for different militant groups, who operate on both sides of the border.
Islamabad says the militants run training camps in Afghanistan to launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic issue.
Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of several Islamist militant groups, has long been waging a war against Pakistan in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with its own Islamic system of governance.
The Pakistani military, which has launched several offensives against the militants, has mostly been their prime target.
G7 agrees to exempt US multinationals from global minimum tax
- The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home
OTTAWA: The Group of Seven nations said Saturday they have agreed to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries — a win for President Donald Trump’s government, which pushed hard for the compromise.
The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home, on both domestic and foreign profits, the G7 said in a statement released by Canada, which holds the group’s rotating presidency.
The agreement was reached in part due to “recently proposed changes to the US international tax system” included in Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which is still being debated in Congress, the statement said.
The side-by-side system could “provide greater stability and certainty in the international tax system moving forward,” it added.
Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That agreement, deeply criticized by Trump, includes two “pillars,” the second of which sets a minimum global tax rate of 15 percent.
The OECD must ultimately decide to exempt the US companies from that tax — or not.
The G7 said it looked forward to “expeditiously reaching a solution that is acceptable and implementable to all.”
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had signaled that a “joint understanding among G7 countries that defends American interests” was in the works.
He also asked US lawmakers to “to remove the Section 899 protective measure from consideration in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill” — Trump’s policy mega-bill.
Section 899 has been dubbed a “revenge tax,” allowing the government to impose levies on firms with foreign owners and on investors from countries deemed to impose unfair taxes on US businesses.
The clause sparked concern that it would inhibit foreign companies from investing in the United States.
Tens of thousands rally in Serbia’s capital to back up their demand for an early vote
- The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students
- The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square
BELGRADE: Tens of thousands of opponents of Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, rallied on Saturday in Belgrade, backing up a demand for an early parliamentary election and declaring the government “illegitimate.”
The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.
Tensions were high before and during the gathering. Riot police deployed around government buildings and close to a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade.
“Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,” said one of the students, who didn’t give her name while giving a speech on a stage to the crowd. “Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.”
At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to “take freedom into your own hands.”
University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.
Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
“We are here today because we cannot take it any more,” Darko Kovacevic said. “This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.”
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify.
Vucic’s authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia’s striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations.
While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday’s anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests.
Serbian police, which is firmly controlled by Vucic’s government, said that 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday.
Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.
In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally on Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.” They were joining a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.
In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists.
“People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” Vucic told reporters on Saturday.
Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.
Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro.
Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.
Authorities made similar moves back in March, before what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Vucic’s loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters — an accusation officials have denied.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
