ISLAMABAD: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) continued its relief operation in flood-hit areas of Balochistan as it has sent more relief goods for the affectees on Sunday.
According to details, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is continuing to provide emergency aid to the flood victims, most of the relief goods have been delivered to the affected areas of Balochistan.
The spokesperson of NDMA says that ration bags have been provided to 39 thousand people, tents have been delivered to more than 45,000 victims, six thousand tarpaulins, seven thousand mosquito nets and more than three thousand blankets have been provided to the Balochistan flood-hit areas.
According to NDMA, 55 d watering pumps and 50 generators were also sent, other relief items include kitchen sets, hygiene kits and chemical spray machines.
The fresh shipment sent today includes tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets, 200 school tents and 35 generators and 30 watering pumps for 60,000 people.
Read more: Death toll from Balochistan downpours mounts to188
The three-match series against India is scheduled to begin on August 18 in Harare and is a part of the ODI World Cup Super League.
Squad : Ryan Burl, Regis Chakabva (capt), Tanaka Chivanga, Bradley Evans, Luke Jongwe, Innocent Kaia, Takudzwanashe Kaitano, Clive Madande (wk), Wessly Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, John Masara, Tony Munyonga, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi, Sikandar, Raza, Milton Shumba, Donald Tiripano
Taiwan's army has held another live-fire drill after Beijing ended its largest-ever military exercises around the island, as it vowed to bring the island under its control.
Taiwan fired howitzers and target flares as part of the drill on Thursday morning, Lou Woei-jye, the spokesperson for Taiwan's Eighth Army Corps, told the AFP news agency.
"We have two goals for the drills, the first is to certify the proper condition of the artillery and their maintenance condition and the second is to confirm the results of last year," Lou said, referring to annual drills.
The exercise in Taiwan's southernmost county of Pingtung began at 0830 am local time (0030 GMT) and lasted about an hour, he said.
Artillery tucked in from the coast was lined up side by side, with armed soldiers in units firing the howitzers out to sea one after the other, a livestream showed.
Taiwan held a similar drill on Tuesday in Pingtung. Both included the deployments of hundreds of troops, the military said.
The military has played down their significance, saying they were already scheduled and were not in response to China's war games.
READ MORE: China 'will not renounce the use of force' to unify Taiwan with mainland
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfIDo1LWUg[/embed]
'Preparing for war'
Beijing has raged at a trip to Taiwan last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — the highest-ranking elected American official to visit in decades — staging days of air and sea drills around the island that raised tensions to their highest level in years.
Taiwan has accused China of using the Pelosi visit as an excuse to kickstart drills that would allow it to rehearse for an "invasion".
The latest exercise came after China's military indicated its own drills had come to an end on Wednesday, saying its forces "successfully completed various tasks" in the Taiwan Strait while vowing to continue patrolling its waters.
But in the same announcement, China added that it would "continue to carry out military training and prepare for war".
In a separate white paper published on Wednesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing would "not renounce the use of force" against Taiwan and reserved "the option of taking all necessary measures".
"We are ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification, but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form," it said in the paper.
Beijing considers Taiwan as its inseparable province. Taiwan says it is an independent country and already enjoys diplomatic ties with at least 14 countries.
Interactions between Washington and Taipei have grown significantly since the tenure of former US president Donald Trump, with former and sitting lawmakers making trips to the island home to more than 25 million people.
The US formally recognised China in 1979 and shifted diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, and accepted Taiwan as part of the mainland under Washington's One China policy.
READ MORE: Taiwanese minister: China using war games to prepare for invasion
Source: AFP
At least 29 people, including six children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry put the number of people killed at 32, but a further ministry statement brought the number down to 29, including six children and four women.
The ministry said that the victims had been killed since Friday in Israeli strikes that also wounded 253 people.
Israeli authorities deny blame and say the children were killed on Saturday by a rocket fired by Palestinian fighters towards Israel that fell short. The claim could not be independently verified.
In response, the Islamic Jihad group said it had fired rockets at West Jerusalem from Gaza on Sunday. Witnesses report hearing rocket sirens and explosions in Israeli communities.
The group said in a statement they had "fired rockets" at the city, marking the first time West Jerusalem was targeted in this round of violence.
READ MORE: Palestine's death toll climbs as Israel continues bombarding Gaza
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BbVpNMdfYY[/embed]
Rising tensions
Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday citing an "imminent threat of attack" by the Islamic Jihad group.
At least seven people, including a child, were killed in one attack on Rafah in south Gaza, local authorities said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that Khaled Mansour, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad group, was killed in the attack on Rafah.
The attacks came amid rising tensions across Palestinian territories since Monday, when Israeli forces detained Bassam al-Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, in a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that twenty members of the Islamic Jihad group were arrested overnight by security forces in the occupied West Bank.
READ MORE: 'It was a catastrophe': Israel gives Gaza locals 15 minutes to flee homes
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Israeli air strikes have flattened homes in Gaza, raising fears of an escalation that has killed at least 24 Palestinians, including six children, and injured over 200 others in the besieged area.
The Israeli army has said its military offensive in Gaza could last a week.
Army spokesperson Ran Kochav said on Saturday that the military is preparing for week-long operations in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army launched air strikes in Gaza on Friday in a pre-emptive attack to allegedly deter possible retaliation from Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad after Israeli forces arrested two of the group's senior members in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli air strikes have been concentrated across heavily populated residential areas in Gaza.
The Islamic Jihad group said Friday that its senior leader Tayseer al Jabari was among those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The group launched rockets in retaliation late Friday.
According to the Israeli army, more than 160 rockets were fired by Islamic Jihad group from Gaza into Israel, with 60 of them intercepted.
The spokesman told Israeli Channel 12 that the Israeli response in Gaza is meant "not to drag the Hamas group into the ongoing conflict."
READ MORE: Gaza’s sole power plant shuts down as Israeli air strikes continue
Israeli attacks come amid rising tensions across Palestinian territories since Monday when Israeli forces detained Bassam al Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, in raid in occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Our colleague has more pic.twitter.com/Mk0hJGl6NE
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 6, 2022
'Devastating consequences'
United Nations Special Envoy Tor Wennesland has warned against the "devastating consequences" of the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Palestinians in Gaza.
The UN envoy described the escalation as "very dangerous" and called on "all sides to avoid further escalation."
"The responsibility is with the parties to avoid this [escalation] from happening," he added.
Egypt’s Al Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has condemned the Israeli air strikes on Gaza, calling on Arabs and Muslims “to unite to support the Palestinians and their just cause as well as their legitimate struggle.”
A statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Cairo was “conducting intensive communications” to “contain the situation in Gaza” and “preserve lives and property.”
Türkiye, Pakistan, Qatar, Iran and the EU were also among countries to condemn the ongoing violence.
READ MORE: Condemnations pour in after Israel launches deadly strikes on besieged Gaza
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Bollywood film Shamshera‘s poor run at the box office continues as it has not earned INR50 crores even after 12 days of its release.
Shamshera, which stars Bollywood couple Ranbir Kapoor in a double role, made its debut on July 22. The film got mixed reviews and has been declared disappointing as far as the box office collection is concerned.
It earned INR0.7 crores on the 12th day of its release. The film’s total collection is INR48.5 crores so far. It looks like its collection will be close to INR75 crores if the situation does not improve.
It is pertinent to mention that Shamshera got produced at a massive budget of INR150 crore. The film has not earned one-third of its budget so far.
It is Ranbir Kapoor’s seventh flop movie of his career.
Related – Shamshera a flop?: Box office numbers in debut week disappointing
Shamshera – which sees Ranbir Kapoor, Vaani Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt in the cast, tells the story of a tribal leader who relentlessly fights for his tribe’s freedom & dignity in the fictitious city of Kaza.
Khila Bisht and Neelesh Mishra have co-written the film. Karan Malhotra has directed and written its screenplay.
Aditya Chopra produced the film while Sudhanshu Kumar and Bharat Rawail are the executive producers and supervising producers respectively.
KARACHI: The US dollar continued its declining trend in the interbank and open market on Thursday after the greenback saw a historic decline of over Rs9 on Wednesday, ARY NEWS reported.
According to forex dealers, the US dollar slipped by Rs4.02 at the start of the day to trade at Rs224.78 as the banks sold it at Rs226.28.
In the open market, the greenback traded between Rs223 and Rs224.
The rupee on Wednesday made a massive comeback against the US dollar in the interbank and open market, a day after the IMF said that the country has fulfilled its last condition of raising the levy on fuel prices.
According to forex dealers, the US dollar lost Rs9.58 today in the interbank against the rupee and traded at Rs228.80 while the banks are selling the greenback at Rs229.
In the open market, the US dollar traded at Rs225.50 after witnessing a reduction in value by Rs13.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/KyRSLkDLEy pic.twitter.com/5NrcLUqkT2
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) August 3, 2022
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday confirmed that Pakistan has achieved all the set targets for the revival of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
Exclusively talking to ARY News, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) resident representative in Islamabad, Esther Perez Ruiz said Pakistan has achieved all the financial targets set by the fund and the last action was accomplished on July 31 by extending the levy on petrol.
Read More: US dollar declines to Rs237 in interbank market
Ruiz said the 7th and 8th reviews have been completed and the IMF Executive Board will meet in the third week of August.
Esther Perez hoped that Pakistan will take steps to narrow the funding gap till the board’s meeting.
