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ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agri­culture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations says though the wheat production in Pakistan has officially been estimated at 29 million tonnes in 2025, reflecting about 5 per cent above the five-year average, the area planted has declined by 6.5pc compared to the previous year. The reason for the decline in area of plantation is attributed to the removal of the minimal support price since May 2024, combined with low domestic wheat prices at the planting time that led some farmers to shift to more profitable vegetables and cash crops, including oilseeds, condiments and vegetables, says Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS) on Pakistan in its latest issue. In irrigated areas, yields are estimated to be above average, but dry weather conditions caused crop losses in rain-fed areas, which acco­unt for about 20pc of wheat plantings, and in some irrigated areas in northern parts due to shortage of irrigation water, the F...

Tremors from a 6.0 magnitude earthquake were felt across several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in the early hours of Monday, according to the authorities but no casualties or damage was reported. According to the state-run PTV which cited the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the earthquake was recorded at 12:18am. It added that the tremors were felt in Peshawar, Manshera, Abbottabad, Hangu, Malakand, Swat, Chitral, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. A Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) spokesperson said the quake was recorded at a depth of 10 kilometres with its epicentre located southwest of Asadabad, Afghanistan. Shocks were also felt in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan. Following the tremors, district administrations across Punjab began inspections of buildings to assess structural safety. “However, no casualties or damage have been reported so far,” PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia confirmed. The PDMA stated that its provin...

The Oil and Gas Regulatory (Ogra) on Sunday notified the new price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) at Rs214.19 per kilogramme for the month of September, according to a notification available with Dawn.com . Last month, the price of LPG was set at Rs215.37 per kg for August, down from Rs233.10 in July — a decrease of Rs17.73 per kg. Consequently, the price of an 11.8kg domestic cylinder was fixed at Rs2,541.36. According to today’s notification, Ogra set the per kg price of LPG at Rs214.19, down from Rs215.37 — a decrease of Rs1.18 per kg since last month. The price for an 11.8kg cylinder was set at Rs2,527.47 — making a cylinder Rs13.89 cheaper than the month prior. These prices are effective from September 1 onwards. “The LPG producer price is linked with Saudi Aramco-CP and US dollar exchange rate,” a separate Ogra press release read. “As compared to [the] previous month, Saudi Aramco-CP remains unchanged. The average dollar exchange rate has slightly decreased by 0.69pc resu...

• Observers say move reminiscent of 2022 resignations, will strengthen treasury benches • Lawmakers of ruling parties vie for coveted slots left vacant after over 40 opposition members quit standing committees AS more than 40 PTI lawmakers quit parliamentary committees, including the apex Public Accounts Committee, in line with the order of their chief Imran Khan, the decision has been described by analysts as a “political blunder”, which will play into the government’s hands. More PTI legislators are expected to submit their resignations to the National Assembly Secretariat on Monday — a move that will likely strengthen the treasury benches in parliament. According to observers, Imran Khan’s move to exit the committees was similar to his decision in 2022 when he decided to quit parliament after the 2022 no-trust vote instead of choosing to become a “heavyweight opposition” after his ouster from power. According to the National Assembly Secretariat (NAS) officials, the decision t...

United States President Donald Trump has scrapped plans to attend an upcoming summit of the ‘Quad’ grouping in India amid deteriorating ties between Washington and New Delhi, US newspaper The New York Times ( NYT ) reported on Saturday. Relations between the two countries have plummeted, with 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the US taking effect this week as punishment for New Delhi’s massive purchases of Russian oil; a part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine . As ties between both nations deteriorate, NYT reported on Saturday that the breakdown in relations was caused after a phone call on June 17. “After telling [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi that he would travel to India later this year for the Quad summit, Mr Trump no longer has plans to visit in the fall, according to people familiar with the president’s schedule,” the NYT reported, citing “interviews with more than a dozen people in Washington and New Delhi”. The NYT...

• Senate panel regrets tourists were not barred from travelling to vulnerable areas, despite NDMA alerts • Calls for revised Afghan refugee policy that balances humanitarian obligations and national security ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Friday expressed concern over the lack of preparedness of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) governments and their failure to act on early warnings issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions, presided over by Senator Asad Qasim at the Parliament House, voiced displeasure over the absence of the GB chief secretary, stressing that the participation of senior officials was vital for effective parliamentary deliberations and meaningful decision-making. The committee decided to defer the agenda pertaining to Gilgit-Baltistan and directed that senior GB officers must ensure their presence at future m...

Skipper Salman Agha hit an unbeaten half-century and fast bowler Haris Rauf grabbed four wickets as Pakistan upstaged Afghanistan by 39 runs in the tri-series opener in Sharjah on Friday. Agha hit a 36-ball 53 not out with three sixes and as many boundaries, which lifted Pakistan to 182-7 in their 20 overs. Pacers Rauf took 4-31 and Shaheen Afridi 2-21, while spinners Mohammad Nawaz (2-23) and Sufiyan Muqeem (2-25) dismissed Afghanistan for 143 in 19.5 overs before a noisy capacity 16,000 crowd at the Sharjah stadium. Afghanistan matched Pakistan with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 27-ball 38 with a six and three boundaries, adding 51 for the second wicket with Sediqullah Atal, who made 23. It was Rauf who changed the game with a two-wicket 12th over, sending Atal and Karim Janat back without conceding a run. Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan smashed five sixes and a four in his whirlwind 16-ball 39 but fell to Rauf to end his team’s fight. Earlier, Pakistan was lifted by Agha’s fourth...

Former Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan will lead the Pakistani delegation aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, according to posts from his social media account on Friday. Earlier this month, it was announced that Pakistan would be joining the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the Israeli siege of Gaza, according to a post on Instagram by the Pak-Palestine Forum, a platform aiming to advance support for the Palestinian cause. According to its website , the flotilla is a “coordinated, nonviolent fleet of mostly small vessels sailing from ports across the Mediterranean to break the Israeli occupation’s illegal siege on Gaza”. Reuters reports that dozens of boats carrying aid will depart Spain and Tunisia and set sail for the Gaza Strip. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Portuguese left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua are among hundreds of people from 44 countries participating in the flotilla. Sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic. Among the pa...

LAHORE: The floodwater in the River finally entered Lahore’s five residential localities on Thursday morning, inundating roads and damaging houses and other infrastructure. However, the timely evacuation saved the residents, as none of them was found stranded in the floodwater, it is learnt. The localities suffered due to flood included Shafiqabad, Farrakhabad and Tallat Park near Shahdara bridge and Theme Park, near Chuhng (Multan Road) and Park View. “At the moment, the Ravi is full of floodwater having flows of nearly 220,000 cusecs whereas the designed capacity of the river is 250,000 cusecs,” revealed Lahore Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza while talking to Dawn on Thursday. According to him, Lahore witnessed worst-ever floods in 1988 after Ravi received 345,000 cusecs flows - around 100,000 cusecs more than the designed capacity - and caused massive destruction in Shahdara and adjoining localities. “After the 1988 floods, the water flows measuring 220,000 in the Ravi at...

• PM Shehbaz, CM Maryam oversee massive relief and evacuation operation • Over 1,400 villages inundated; grain crops submerged • Chenab expected to swell to dangerous level at Head Trimmu • Sialkot airport shut due to floodwater • Minister says no compensation for structures built illegally in high-risk areas MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Residents wade through a flooded road in Qadirabad village near the River Chenab.—Reuters LAHORE: The Punjab government has launched one of its largest evacuation operations in recent years, as floodwaters affected over 1.46 million people across the province, with the Chenab River expected to swell to dangerous levels at Head Trimmu. Extremely high floods in the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab rivers have also resulted in the loss of 17 lives. The province is battling its worst flooding in four decades, which has caused havoc in hundreds of villages and submerged vital grain crops. Torrential monsoon rain and India’s release of excess water from its dams swe...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that Tehran would respond to a decision by France, Britain and Germany to trigger a mechanism reimposing UN sanctions under a moribund 2015 nuclear deal . “The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond appropriately to this illegal and unjustified action by the three European countries, in order to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests,” Araghchi told his French, British and German counterparts in a phone call, according to a statement from his ministry. He called on the three countries to “appropriately correct this wrong decision in the coming days”. While Araghchi did not specify what retaliatory measures Iran might take, Tehran has previously warned that such a move could lead to the exclusion of the European powers from any future negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme. In a statement, the Iranian foreign ministry said: “This decision by the three European countries will seriously undermine the ongoing pro...

• Evacuation of Gaza’s largest city ‘inevitable’, says Israeli army spokesman • Save the Children chief says starving children are too weak to even cry GAZA CITY: The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump prepared to host a White House meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory. Israel is under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end its almost two-year campaign in Gaza, where the military is preparing to conquer the territory’s largest city and the United Nations has declared a famine. Mediators have circulated a draft ceasefire and prisoner deal that has been accepted by the Palestinian group Hamas, but Israel has yet to give an official response. Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari on Tuesday said that mediators were still “waiting for an answer” from Israel. On the ground, the Israeli military said its troops were “operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to locate and dismantl...

THIS monsoon season has laid bare how politics is seeping into the riverbanks, eroding one of South Asia’s most enduring mechanisms of cooperation at a time when the region needs it most. After all, New Delhi has used the devastating floods sweeping across northern India and Pakistan to reassert its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), while trying to present its ‘limited alerts’ as gestures of concern. The IWT, signed in 1960, has long been hailed as a rare success story in an otherwise conflict-prone relationship. Through wars and diplomatic standoffs, it provided a framework for data sharing, water allocation, and flood management. Between July and October, this system used to enable near-continuous updates on river flows, with information exchanged via the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), a joint body established for that very purpose. That arrangement had been gradually eroding over the past decade, but it effectively collapsed this year after India, in ...

When officials warn of a “medium”, “high”, “very high” or “exceptionally high” flood, what does that actually mean? Over the past week, as Punjab’s rivers have swollen , these technical terms have dominated official updates. Behind these terms lies a simple story about water, river capacity and the limits of infrastructure. What is a cusec? Flood levels are measured in cusecs — short for “cubic feet per second.” One cusec equals the flow of one cubic foot of water every second, or about 28 litres. Put simply, a flow of 100,000 cusecs means nearly 283,000 litres of water rushing past in just one second. On Wednesday, the Ravi at Jassar was recorded at 229,000 cusecs at one point — enough to overwhelm the river’s safe capacity. How flood levels are decided However, flood intensity is not judged by one number alone. It depends on the size of each river and how much water it can normally carry. Smaller rivers such as the Ravi and Sutlej reach critical levels quickly — 200,000 cusecs h...

Another suspect in the torture of two brothers by street vendors in Raiwind was arrested, a lawyer representing the victims said on Wednesday. The incident went viral on social media when a video clip showed some street vendors subjecting both brothers to severe torture on a road in the Raiwind area a few days back. They were lying in a pool of blood, and the suspected attackers, holding clubs in their hands, were spotted torturing them at a public place with many onlookers and passersby standing around. One brother died of severe torture marks at the spot, while the other succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. The main suspect was arrested and handed over to the Crime Control Department (CCD) on Tuesday. Ali Ahmed Awan, a lawyer representing the victims’ father, told Dawn.com that police have arrested the main suspect from Sahiwal. “A total of six suspects are named in the case and so far, three have been arrested,” Awan said. “Police arrested the suspect from Sahiwal with th...

ISLAMABAD: Google has launched its new ‘AI Mode’ in Pakistan, offering users access to its most advanced AI-powered search experience. First introduced in the United States this year, the feature is now expanding globally, with Pakistan among the latest countries to gain access. The tool, powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, enables people to ask longer and more complex questions that previously required multiple searches. Available in English, AI Mode can be accessed via the Google app on Android and iOS, as well as on mobile and desktop web. In a statement, Google said that early testers have shown that queries are already two to three times longer than traditional searches, highlighting the tool’s usefulness for exploratory tasks such as comparing products, planning trips, or tackling “how-to” questions. “It dives deep to answer multiple questions at once, with helpful links for further exploration,” the company said. Google explained that Pakistani users can use ‘AI Mode...

At least 25 countries have decided to suspend package deliveries to the United States, as concern grows over the impact of President Donald Trump’s looming tariffs, a UN body said on Tuesday. The Trump administration said late last month that it would abolish a tax exemption on small packages entering the US from August 29. The move has sparked a flurry of announcements from postal services, including in France, Britain, Germany, Italy, India, Australia and Japan, that most US-bound packages would no longer be accepted. The United Nations’ Universal Postal Union (UPU) said it had already been advised by 25 member countries that their postal operators “have suspended their outbound postal services to the US, citing uncertainties specifically related to transit services”. It said the suspensions would remain in place until there was more clarity on how US authorities planned to implement the announced measures. The UPU did not provide a list of postal services it had heard from. ‘C...

(LEFT to right) Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Salama, AP contributor Mariam Dagga and Moaz Abu Taha were among the five journalists killed in Monday’s strike on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. (Right) A media worker holds Mariam Dagga’s bloodied camera during her funeral.—AFP/Reuters GAZA: Five journalists were among at least 20 people killed on Monday when Israeli strikes hit a hospital in the south, prompting a global outcry. Reuters, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera all issued statements mourning their slain contributors, while the Israeli military said it would investigate the incident. The war on Gaza has been one of the deadliest for journalists, with aro­u­nd 200 media workers kil­led over the course of the nearly two-year Israeli assault, according to media watchdogs. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “the toll so far is 20 martyrs, including five journalists and one member of the civil defence”, after strikes hit Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital — a large medical comple...

NEW DELHI: Should the educational qualifications of Indian leaders be subject to public scrutiny? The question was answered in the negative by the Delhi High Court on Monday, which quashed the Central Information Commission’s 2016 order permitting a RTI activist to look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s B.A. records, assuming the records exist. The court quashed the order that would have enabled the RTI activist to inspect Delhi University’s 1978 B.A. records, the year Narendra Modi graduated, The Hindu said. “Something which is of interest to the public” is quite different from “something which is in the public interest”, Justice Sac­­hin Dutta remarked as he set aside the CIC’s Dec 21, 2016 order. In the 175-page combined judgement, Justice Datta also ruled against the CIC’s order asking the CBSE to share Class X and XII records of BJP leader Smriti Irani to a RTI applicant, saying, “there is no implicit public interest in respect of the information sought.” Observes something ...

United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expects to visit China this year or shortly afterwards, noting that economic ties between the two countries have improved — even as he kept the door open to steeper tariffs. Speaking to reporters as he met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington, Trump pointed to recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping: “At some point, probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China. “We’re going to have a great relationship with China,” Trump vowed. The US leader added: “They have some cards. We have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards. If I played those cards, that would destroy China.” Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have been simmering this year, but have significantly cooled since April, when both countries slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s exports. At one point, the tit-for-tat duties reached triple digits on both sides, snarling supply chains ...

• First meeting of 11th NFC scheduled for Friday • PTI’s Muzammil Aslam says KP will seek disincentivising population, propose prosperity and forestation as criteria for resource distribution • KP minister rues imbalance in Centre’s approach to smaller provinces NATHIA GALI: For a change, the federal government led by the PML-N and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government headed by the PTI seem to be in agreement on changes to the oversized population factor in determining the share of the federation and its federating units under the new National Finance Commission (NFC), set to hold its introductory meeting later this week. “We will demand that population and backwardness should be disincentivised for resource distribution among the provinces,” said KP Mini­ster for Finance Muzammil Aslam while speaking at the first two-day ‘Prosper Pakistan’ conference organised by the FPCCI Regional Office Peshawar in collaboration with KP’s Board of Investment and Trade. The federal ministers, parti...

Emma Raducanu bagged her first US Open victory since her fairytale 2021 title triumph on Sunday with a straight-sets demolition of Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara. The Briton was in complete control throughout, breaking Shibahara’s serve routinely on her way to a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing on the Louis Armstrong Stadium showcourt. The win was Raducanu’s first at the US Open since she made history four years ago, winning the championship as a little-known qualifier at the age of 18. She was knocked out in the US Open first round in 2022, missed the 2023 tournament due to injury, and exited in the first round again in 2024. “I’m very pleased to have come through that match,” Raducanu said afterwards. “First rounds are very challenging always, the nerves, and I wanted to win a match here really bad.” Raducanu admitted that her failure to win in New York since her memorable title triumph four years ago had begun to weigh on her. “It has been on my mind,” she said. “It’s been four years, an...

LONDON: Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage set out plans on Saturday for “mass deportation” of migrants who have crossed the English Channel on small boats if his Reform UK party forms Britain’s next government. In an interview with The Times newspaper, Farage said he would withdraw Britain from the Euro­pean Convention on Human Rights and sign deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other top countries of origin to repatriate illegal migrants. “We can be nice to people, we can be nice to other countries, or we can be very tough to other countries … I mean (US President Donald) Trump has proved this point quite comprehensively,” Farage said. Asked if he was concerned that asylum seekers would be killed or tortured if they were sent to countries with poor human rights records, Farage said he was more worried about the threat he believed asylum seekers posed to Britons. Small-scale protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers have become frequent “I can’t be responsible for desp...