ISLAMABAD: Google on Tuesday announced the launch of a special program for Pakistani journalists to help them produce accurate and engaging digital stories, in collaboration with a Pakistani social enterprise, Tech Valley.
The program, ‘Digital Sahafat,’ or Digital Journalism, is part of the Google News Initiative (GNI) that works with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation, share resources and build a diverse and innovative news ecosystem.
“We’re very excited to announce the launch of Digital Sahafat, a program by the Google News Initiative, in partnership with Tech Valley, to equip 1,000 journalists in Pakistan with the essential tools, training, and resources to produce accurate and engaging digital news stories,” the GNI said in a statement.
The program will be formally launched in Islamabad on September 4, according to the GNI. The event will be addressed by Kate Beddoe, managing director of Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) News Partnerships at Google, and the Tech Valley team.
The GNI has supported journalism worldwide and continues to build on Google’s decades-long dialogue and collaboration in the news industry as part of a global effort to build a more sustainable and equitable news ecosystem. Since 2018, it has partnered with thousands of news organizations in more than a hundred countries to provide tools, programs, and workshops that help publishers worldwide in boosting readership and revenue as they evolve their businesses.
Founded in 2015, Tech Valley aims to bring together public and private sectors of Pakistan by bridging the gap between academia, industry and the government through technology and innovation.
Google announces program to help Pakistani journalists produce accurate, engaging digital stories
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Google announces program to help Pakistani journalists produce accurate, engaging digital stories
- The program will equip 1,000 journalists in Pakistan with the essential tools, training, and resources
- The launching ceremony of the program will be held in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Sept. 4
Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp
Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp
- Israeli strikes blasted a huge crater in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza before dawn on Tuesday
- More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the latest round of the war in Gaza that began on Oct. 7
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday “strongly” condemned predawn Israeli airstrikes in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza earlier this week, saying the attacks demonstrated a disregard for human life and Israel’s “genocidal designs” against the Palestinian people.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza on Tuesday, setting tents ablaze and burying Palestinian families under sand.
The Israeli military said it had struck a command center for Hamas fighters it said had infiltrated the designated “humanitarian” area in Al-Mawasi, a vast camp on sandy soil where the military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes. Hamas denied any fighters were present.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the air strikes by Israeli occupation forces on the Al Mawasi Humanitarian Zone in Khan Younis, Gaza, on September 10, which claimed the lives of 40 civilians,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a media briefing.
“Executed in an area designated as a safe zone for displaced persons by the Israeli occupation forces themselves constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The carnage in Khan Younis without prior warning and in defiance of basic protections demonstrates a disregard for human life and Israel’s genocidal designs against the Palestinian people.”
Baloch called on the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing Israeli forces from continuing with their “genocidal campaign” against the Palestinian people and holding them accountable for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The latest round of the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people multiple times, given rise to deadly hunger and disease and killed more than 40,500 people.
The two warring sides each blame the other for a failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.
Nearly all of Gaza’s people have been forced from their homes at least once and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
Pakistan commits to maritime decarbonization, environmentally friendly ship recycling at Islamabad summit
- UN maritime chief is in Pakistan on first-ever visit as Islamabad hosts International Maritime Sustainability Conference
- Pakistan says ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the global maritime sector, make greater use of green technology to improve ships’ energy efficiency and carry out more environmentally friendly ship recycling, as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) arrived in Islamabad to attend the International Maritime Sustainability Exhibition and Conference (IMSEC).
This is the first-ever visit to Pakistan by the chief of the IMO, a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping and ensuring maritime safety, environmental protection and security on international waters. Established in 1948, its primary role is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping, which includes standards for safety, pollution prevention and legal matters surrounding global maritime operations.
“Pakistan fully complies with IMO regulation,” Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said at the opening session of Thursday’s conference.
“We are striving to reduce the global [carbon] footprint and make greater use of green technology. Such measures must be taken in every institution to deal with climate change.”
The minister said Pakistan was invested in ensuring the protection of biodiversity and the oceans and would work to make ship recycling “safe and environmentally friendly.”
“We are ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy,” Sheikh added.
Addressing the conference, IMO chief Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco said his visit to Pakistan would give him the opportunity to “come back in the future and assess and evaluate all the promises and the conversations and the challenges that we are going to put toward each other, from Pakistan government as well as from IMO in order to work better in the different aspects of shipping.”
He said he looked forward to working with Pakistan on decarbonization and ship recycling, where Pakistan is one of the leading nations in the world.
In a statement shared with media on Wednesday, the foreign office said Velasco’s visit would afford an opportunity for Pakistan and the IMO to exchange views on the maritime sector and the blue economy:
“As a founding member of IMO, Pakistan is deeply committed to IMO’s vision of safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans … Pakistan has served for five terms on the IMO Council and has consistently contributed in upholding the IMO objectives.”
The foreign office said Velasco would be in Pakistan from September 12 to 14 and would hold meetings with Pakistani leaders and senior government officials.
He is scheduled to attend IMSEC, which began in Islamabad on Thursday and will continue in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi over the next two days.
Pakistan cancer survivors turn to art for healing and hope
- Two-day exhibition at PNCA in Islamabad featured work by nine cancer survivors
- In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate
ISLAMABAD: Fatima Salman, a 43-year-old miniature painter, found solace in art after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, using her brush and canvas as therapy to overcome the disease and paint her way to healing.
Nearly five years later, she curated the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) this week, featuring the work of nine cancer survivors whose techniques range from oil, watercolors, mixed media and calligraphy.
Cancer has become a growing burden in Pakistan in recent years, posing a significant cause for concern. An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report in 2021 says the proportion of newly diagnosed cancers is 0.18 million in Pakistan, the number of cancer fatalities is 0.11 million, and the number of prevalent cases (5 year) is 0.32 million. In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate, with one out of nine women now having a lifetime risk of the disease. Pakistan also has one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates globally.
“Initially, after my diagnosis, I had taken a little break from painting,” Salman, who graduated from Lahore’s renowned National College of Arts in 2001, told Arab News at the exhibition.
“But soon I felt a void … So, that’s when I thought that I don’t have much time, and I have so much work to do. So, I started painting, that was my therapy.”
Even after her recovery from stage four metastatic cancer, Salman said her creative work proved vital for her to open a new chapter of hope in her life.
“As I went through all the life-changing challenges, I thought that I could not be the only one going through this,” she added.
Salman then started looking for other cancer survivors interested in exhibiting their artwork.
“The basic idea is to create a platform for artists who can just come together and voice their feelings through art,” she said about the exhibition this week, which also saw the launch of a deeply personal memoir, My Cancer Journey, by Shirin Gheba Najib.
A 70-year-old retired school principal, Najib said painting had always been a “constant” in her life since she completed her first oil painting at the age of 12 but she had to put her passion on hold when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021.
Weakened by the illness and the relentless trips to the hospital, she found refuge in writing instead.
“I used to take my laptop to chemotherapy as each session used to take six to eight hours, where [one could] write very freely,” Najib told Arab News.
The articles crafted while battling for her life became the foundation for the newly launched book and also gave Najib the impetus to go back to painting.
“Now that I’m completely out of cancer, which was within 15 months, now I’ve started painting again,” she said with a smile.
Speaking to Arab News, another artist, Ambreen Rashid Khan, reflected her newfound appreciation for life following her battle with stage 4 breast cancer, diagnosed four years ago.
“It’s strange,” the 65-year-old retired schoolteacher said. “You take life for granted until something like this happens. After that you learn that your time is short. So that is it, I love color and I love happiness.”
Khan said she started painting flowers in bright colors after her recovery as a display of her “gratitude and happiness.”
Experimenting with both oil and watercolors, she said her aim was to paint life and nature itself.
Asked about her ambition, she said that she wanted to “leave something behind” as her legacy but also to live out the rest of her days “in happiness.”
Sixty-year-old Nafisa Ather, an Islamic calligrapher, also said painting became her biggest source of solace when she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Cancer struck me [and] the thing which I didn’t have in me before was the fear that you are going to die,” she told Arab News. “And I just felt that I still have to fulfill some of my responsibilities, which have not been fulfilled. So, I think that gave me courage.”
Painting had helped her fight her fear of death, Ather said.
“You are creating something, you are making something and actually you forget your fear. That’s the beauty of it.
“Don’t give up on life,” she added. “If you give up, you’ll lose the battle. You have to believe you will survive.”
CM of Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan says will hold direct talks with Kabul on militancy
- Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with Kabul
- Over 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes, target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said this week he would hold direct talks with Kabul to take action against Afghanistan-based militant groups that Islamabad says launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent weeks, with many of them taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where groups like the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have stepped up attacks, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.
Over 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, according to police data. In the latest killing, unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead a policeman in Domail, a town on the outskirts of Bannu district. Police, joined by representatives of civil society and political parties as well as tribal elders and members of the public, are currently holding protests in a number of districts of the province against the spike in militancy and attacks on officers.
Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the TTP frequently launch attacks from hideouts in neighboring Afghanistan, targeting police and other security forces. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
“My [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] police has lost trust, my people have lost trust, where are you [federal government, army] taking my youth, my people?” Gandapur said as he addressed a ceremony on Wednesday evening.
“I am saying let me send a representative to Afghanistan to talk to them. Afghanistan is our neighbor, we speak the same language, we have a longer than 1,200 km border. Let me talk to them that what is happening in Afghanistan.
“I announce here … I will talk to Afghanistan myself, I will talk to them as a province. I am telling you as the representative of this province, I will send an emissary and arrange a meeting, I will sit with them and talk and Inshallah I will solve this issue through talks.”
Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration, which denies allowing Afghan soil to be used for attacks.
The matter has led to clashes between the border forces of the two countries on multiple occasions in recent months, including on Sunday when security forces in Pakistan killed eight Afghan Taliban fighters in a border clash following what Islamabad described as “unprovoked firing” on Pakistani checkpoints.
Pakistan register 2-1 win against Japan in Hockey Asian Champions Trophy match
- Tournament started on Sunday with six continental heavyweights going head-to-head in China
- Six nations participating are India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Japan, Pakistan and hosts China
ISLAMABAD: Unbeaten Pakistan bagged their first victory in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy by beating Japan 2-1 here at the Moqi Hockey Training Base in Hulun Buir, China, on Wednesday, the International Hockey Federation (IHF) said.
From the Pakistan side, Ahmad Nadeem and Sufyan Khan netted one goal each while Japan’s Raiki Fujishima scored one goal. Pakistan will now lock horns with host China tomorrow, Friday.
“We are happy to walk away with the winning points,” Khan was quoted as saying in an IHF statement.
“Our Coach’s instructions was to not make errors, in the first two matches we got too many cards that cost us dearly. We wanted to play a disciplined match today and we defended with all our heart. I am also happy to score for my team when we needed it the most.”
With this win, Pakistan is placed second in the pool standings with five points behind India on the top. The much-awaited India vs Pakistan match of the tournament will be played on September 14.
The championship started on Sunday with six continental heavyweights going head-to-head at the Moqi Training Base.
The six nations participating in the Asian Champion Trophy 2024 are India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Japan Pakistan and hosts China.
India are the most successful side in the Asian Champions Trophy, having won it four times. They enter the 2024 edition as the defending champions, having beaten Malaysia 4-3 in the final in Chennai last year.
