Bouquet (2024)

07/02/2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday underscored that the Pakistan-China relationship was “the cornerstone of its foreign policy” as both sides reiterated their support on issues “concerning each other's core interests”.

According to a joint statement released after the meeting of PM Imran with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Pakistan side expressed its “commitment to One-China Policy and support for China on Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet”.

07/02/2022

BEIJING: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a 'historic meeting' on Sunday to discuss global and bilateral issues.

The announcement came through Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s official Twitter handle, where he reported that after his meeting with President Xi, the premier will depart for Islamabad.

07/02/2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s position toward the West is becoming increasingly defiant as he set to visit Russia from February 23 to 25 after completing his “historic visit to China” and attending the Beijing Olympics, which the US and several other western countries had boycotted.

Diplomatic sources confirmed on Sunday evening that the premier was expected to undertake the “all crucial” visit of Moscow in the last week of February -- the first by a Pakistani premier in over two decades. Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry refrained from confirming the development, saying that the foreign affairs ministry should be approached for this purpose.

The premier’s visit to Moscow is believed to be a clear signal to the West, especially after he clearly said “absolutely not” to Washington on giving bases in Pakistan following its withdrawal from Afghanistan and not receiving a phone call from US President Joe Biden since he assumed his office in the White House.
“Prime Minister Imran’s visit under the current circumstances is crucial,” a diplomat told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity, while referring to the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine and ultimately between Moscow and the West.

04/02/2022

Pakistan Cricket Board and Cricket Australia today announced the revised itinerary of the 2022 Australia men’s cricket team’s tour of Pakistan for three Tests, three ODIs and one T20I.

The tour will now start and end in Rawalpindi with the opening Test to be played from 4-8 March and the four white-ball matches to be played from 29 March to 5 April.

04/02/2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday arrived in Beijing on a four-day official visit where he would join other world leaders attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to be held on Friday.

Accompanied by a high-level delegation including federal cabinet members, the premier would also meet the Chinese leadership.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Planning Minister Asad Umar, Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf, Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood and Special Assistant on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Khalid Mansoor are part of the prime minister’s delegation.

04/02/2022

The United States values its relationship with Pakistan, the State Department reaffirmed on Wednesday, while emphasising that there was no requirement, as far as Washington was concerned, for other countries to choose between the US and China.

“We’ve made the point all along that it is not a requirement for any country around the world to choose between the United States and China,” Spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked if Pakistan and China have become closer because “they feel abandoned” by the US.

04/02/2022

Pakistani currency hit a two-month high of Rs175.52 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed its $6 billion loan programme and approved the release of next tranche of $1 billion.

The rupee recovered 0.51% (or Rs0.89) to Rs175.52 compared to Wednesday’s close of Rs176.41, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

“Such a large recovery in a single day was last seen about five weeks ago,” Arif Habib Limited (AHL) reported.

Cumulatively, the rupee has recovered 1.53% (or Rs2.72) since hitting an all-time low of Rs178.24 five weeks ago on December 29, 2021.

“The rupee is expected to consolidate around Rs175 against the US dollar in the short run (for about a couple of months),” Ismail Iqbal Securities Head of Research Fahad Rauf said while talking to The Express Tribune.

02/02/2022

Ester Ledecka, a shock champion in two different sports in Pyeongchang four years ago, refuses to even utter the word "Olympics" as she heads to the Beijing Winter Games.

Four years ago in Pyeongchang, the 26-year-old Czech won a surprise gold in the alpine skiing super-G event before adding another in her favoured event, the snowboarding parallel giant slalom.

It made her the first athlete to win events in both alpine skiing and snowboarding at the same Olympics.

In the super-G, Ledecka edged odds-on favourite Anna Veith of Austria by the narrowest of margins, with just one hundredth of a second separating the two.

Genuinely stunned, Ledecka did not even celebrate, staring at the scoreboard in disbelief for several seconds before a TV cameraman assured her she had won.

02/02/2022

Formula One will make it mandatory for all personnel working in its paddock to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, without exemption, starting this season, a spokesperson for the sport's commercial arm said on Monday.

The mandate, which was first reported by the Times newspaper and the BBC, will apply to anyone entering the paddock – an exclusive area in which teams and drivers set up shop for a race weekend.

"F1 will require all travelling personnel to be fully vaxxed and will not request exemptions," the spokesperson said. This will include all competitors, hospitality staff, members of the media, the governing FIA, Liberty Media-owned commercial rights holders FOM and even celebrity guests.

02/02/2022

Sony Interactive Entertainment will acquire Bungie Inc, the original creator of the "Halo" videogame and developer of "Destiny", in a deal valued at $3.6 billion, making it the latest in a wave of consolidations sweeping the gaming sector.

Bungie will join Sony's PlayStation family, the US company said in a blog post, as the Japanese conglomerate strengthens its network of in-house gaming studios behind hits such as "Spider-Man" to take on cash-rich rivals.

Microsoft Corp, whose XBox consoles have long lagged Sony's PlayStation in sales, pitched a whopping $69 billion for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard earlier in January.

"While this is one of Sony's biggest-ever acquisitions, the amount paid by Microsoft puts into context the heavy competition faced in this sector," said Piers Harding-Rolls, gaming analyst at Ampere Analysis.

02/02/2022

There are two types of people in the world right now; the ones who are raking in money via cryptocurrency, and the others who are still struggling to understand how investing works in the blockchain.

For Pakistanis, cryptocurrency recently came under the spotlight when the TV host-turned-influencer and crypto-enthusiast Waqar Zaka did the unsought labour to make people understand the workings of the bitcoin network. While many may have mocked him earlier, it seems like he had a point after all, and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s investment returns are proof of it!

According to a report in Economic Times, the Piku actor, along with his son, Abhishek Bachchan, invested around $250,000 (INR 16m) in a Singapore-based company called Meridian Tech Pte, founded by Venkata Srinivas Meenavalli. The investment gave a return of $17.5 million (INR 1.12b) within a period of two and a half years.

02/02/2022

The first public beta of the iOS 15.4 is already out but in the upcoming weeks, Apple users can anticipate new awesome features from the software update. Although the last update of iOS 15.3 launched a few days ago, the new one is already on its way with exciting updates including unlocking your phone ID with a mask.

Universal Control

The anticipated feature is only available for iPadOS 15.4, allowing you to use the same mouse, keyboard, and trackpad to control multiple devices like Macs and iPads. The mouse will effortlessly move across both screens when it's being controlled on one device. Users can see the cursor move on the display screen on two different devices, while smoothly transitioning between screens without any sudden jumps.

Face ID unlock with mask

Apple Watch linked to your own iPhone could already help users to unlock their phones even while wearing a mask but the new software update will perform this same feature without the Apple watch. The company stated, “Face ID is most accurate when it’s set up for full-face recognition only. To use Face ID while wearing a mask, iPhone can recognize the unique features around the eye to authenticate.”

Notes in Keychain

The password keeper will help you guess your passwords by letting you add notes. This was previously only available to other apps and not the Keychain until now.

The three amazing features, highlighted by Forbes, also mention the upcoming Heath feature which will now support EU Coronavirus Vaccination records and an improved sign-in option for Apple TV.

24/01/2022

Samsung Newsroom released a new teaser for an upcoming Galaxy phone, a combination of S and Note Series. The upcoming February Unpacked event this year hasn't confirmed a date or products to be launched, but the company seems confident that its new Samsung Galaxy S22 will be a different and new standard for all previous phones.

According to the company's blog, the February Unpacked event will "introduce you to the most noteworthy S series device we’ve ever created."

24/01/2022

Elon Musk find's Twitter's foray into NFTs 'annoying'. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO thinks Twitter is wasting engineering resources on this effort instead of trying to curb spam activity on the platform.

24/01/2022

Instagram is making changes to feed in accordance with it's community guidelines. Apart from removing content, the platform will show posts containing harmful content lower in the feed.

"In addition to removing content that goes against our Community Guidelines, we’re now taking stronger action against posts that may contain bullying or hate speech, or that may encourage violence, by showing them lower in Feed and Stories," the platform shared on their blog.

24/01/2022

The Turkish state-run aid agency will be starting almost 50 new projects in Pakistan in 2022 to help with the development of education, health, and agriculture.

Muhsin Balci, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency's (TIKA) programme coordinator for Pakistan, made the announcement for TIKA’s 30th anniversary.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many countries in Central Asia declared independence.

This led Turkiye to devote aid efforts to Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia and helping the newly formed countries in various social, economic, and cultural endeavors.

To help meet that demand, TIKA was established in 1992.

"TIKA is now working in more than 150 countries and we have done more than 30,000 projects since our establishment in different countries. In these projects we share our knowledge and expertise in the field of education, health, and agriculture with countries from the Balkans to Africa, from the Middle East to Latin America," said Balci, who came in early January to Islamabad, beginning official visits of projects.

24/01/2022

After the arrival of Indian tourists in Pakistan earlier in January, Pakistani tourists will also fly to India on January 29 on a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight for the first time in 75 years.
Earlier, pilgrims used to visit each other's countries either by foot or via Samjhauta Express. According to Member National Assembly and Chairman Pakistan Hindu Council Ramesh Kumar, an agreement was reached between the PIA and Air India for the promotion of religious tourism between the two neighbouring countries.

20/01/2022

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced its ODI team of the year featuring two Pakistani players — Babar Azam and Fakhar Azam — with the former given the reins to captain the honorary line-up, just as in the T20I eleven.

The cricket body had unveiled its T20I team of the year a day ago, naming Azam as its skipper for his "classy best" performance in the format last year, during which he was also the leading run-scorer at the T20 World Cup. He earned the same honours for the 50-over format as well.

The 11-member ODI team announced today comprises Babar Azam (c), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Rassie van der Dussen, Shakib Al Hasan, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Simi Singh and Dushmantha Chameera.

20/01/2022

Indian former doubles world number one Sania Mirza said on Wednesday she will retire from tennis at the end of this season with injuries taking their toll.

It came after the 35-year-old, regarded as her country's greatest women's tennis player, bowed out of the Australian Open in the first round with her partner Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine.

“I have decided this will be my last season. I'm taking it week by week, not sure if I can last the season, but I want to,” she told press in Melbourne, in comments later confirmed to AFP by her father.

20/01/2022

The Pakistan Navy on Thursday assumed command of Multinational Combined Task Force-150 (CTF-150) for the 12th time.

According to reports, the change of command ceremony was held at the US Central Naval Command Headquarters in Bahrain.

Commodore Waqar Muhammad was appointed as the new commander CTF-150.

The new commander expressed his determination that the Pakistan Navy would continue to work with navies of other countries for peace and stability in the region.

"The Combined Task Force ensures counter-terrorism and other illegal activities at sea," he said. "It is performing its duties in the Indian Ocean under the supervision of Combined Maritime Forces."

20/01/2022

LOS ANGELES: The long-awaited, expensive Middle-earth fantasy series from Amazon.com Inc has a name: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Amazon's Prime Video revealed the full name of the fantasy series on Wednesday ahead of its planned streaming debut of Sept. 2.

The show's storyline takes place thousands of years before the events in writer J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books, which are set in the fictional land of Middle-earth and were brought to life in blockbuster movies.

The subtitle foreshadows a story "that welds the major events of Tolkien's Second Age together: the forging of the iconic rings," Amazon said in a statement.

Creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said the series "unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Numenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men."

19/01/2022

China on Monday canceled plans to sell tickets to the public for the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country reached its highest since March 2020.

Organisers said last year there would be no international spectators at the Games -- partly due to China's weeks-long quarantine requirements -- but they had promised to allow domestic audiences.

But those plans were scrapped on Monday as China reported 223 new infections just three weeks before the Winter Olympics are set to open.

"In order to protect the health and safety of Olympic-related personnel and spectators, it was decided to adjust the original plan to sell tickets to the public and (instead) organise spectators to watch the Games on-site," the Beijing Olympic organising committee said in a statement.

It is unclear how these spectators will be selected and whether they will have to quarantine before or after the Games.

19/01/2022

Google will now let you share files with yourself. You no longer need to email yourself. Google has updated its Nearby Share feature and will now allow users to share files with their other devices, Chromium Gerrit noted. The Self Share feature will be integrated into Nearby Share and is to be launched soon.

Nearby Share allows users to instantly transfer files, music, videos, to other Android and Chrome OS devices. Nearby Share works similarly to Apple's AirDrop feature. However, Self Share will focus on sending files across your own devices without cables, online services, or third-party software.

19/01/2022

China hailed on Tuesday the launching of the Pakistan-China Business and Investment Forum and appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government for attaching importance to the bilateral relations and promoting trade between the two countries.

Launched on Monday, the forum had been formed in collaboration with the Board of Investment (BOI) and the All Pakistan Chinese Enterprises Association to increase investment by the Chinese companies in Pakistan and enhance business-to-business industrial cooperation.

"China appreciates the prime minister and the Pakistani government for the importance they attached to bilateral relations and promoting trade," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing in his remarks on the launching of the forum.

Referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Wang said that China was glad to see enhanced exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. "We will strive to promote investment and trade to the benefit of both countries and peoples," he told the briefing.

19/01/2022

“The furniture industry is one of the pillar industries in Dezhou, Shandong province, China. Pakistan is China’s all-weather strategic partner with a population of more than 200 million. It is highly complementary to China in the furniture industry,” Pakistan’s Embassy in China Commercial Counsellor Badaruz Zaman said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the online Dezhou Furniture Industry Chain Pakistan Market Development Promotion Conference, the commercial counsellor said that the second phase of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) has achieved remarkable results.

“Around 6,000 items will ultimately be zero duty in the coming 10 years, so access to markets for each other is increasing and trade is also having a great run in these last two to three years. In the last quarter, there was an increase of around 70% in exports from Pakistan to China.”

Zaman encouraged all participants to take part and contribute to the increase in bilateral trade and investment in Pakistan. On the occasion, Zhong Ling, Deputy Director of Standing Committee of Dezhou Municipal People’s Congress and Director of Dezhou Furniture Industry Chain, highlighted that Dezhou’s furniture industry was included in 30 provincial-level industrial clusters of over 10 billion yuan in Shandong province.

19/01/2022

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has been declared the “best chief minister”, followed by the chief ministers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan respectively in a survey.

The survey, conducted by Institute of Public Opinion Research (IPOR), offered the respondents to judge the CMs on their three-year performance in the areas of education, health and development.

It saw 45 per cent of the respondents endorsing Punjab CM, with Mahmood Khan, Murad Ali Shah and Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo securing the next slots.

According to the survey, 41 per cent of the respondents endorsed Mehmood Khan, 38 per cent opted for Shah while 32 per cent voted for Bizenjo.

18/01/2022

FlyFish Club has announced that it will open a luxury 'seafood-inspired' dining restaurant, in the first half of next year, according to the Washington Post. To get access to the club, members will have to have a FlyFish NFT, a unique digital asset stored on the blockchain and purchased with cryptocurrency. According to the founder and CEO of VCR, David Rodolitz, FlyFish released 1,501 tokens this month, generating around $15 million.

Regular membership token of the club is available on the secondary market for $13,600. For $29,500 members would have access to an exclusive tier including a private room serving multicourse sushi meal created by the chef. The fees don't include meals and will have to be paid for separately by customers.

Rodolitz remarked in an interview, that the new NFT restaurant experience wasn't a luxurious dining experience, but "social currency is a big part of this. People are communicating digitally about what they like and who they are." He believes NFTs would serve as traditional status symbols to connotate taste and means, and that a few years down the line, people will stop looking at LinkedIn profiles but will instead look at a person's digital wallet.

18/01/2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday stressed the need for investing in the technology sector, saying that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had removed impediments to it, which had resulted in the sector’s growth by 45% so far.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of the Pakistan Digital City Special Technology Zone on Monday, Premier Imran emphasised that investment in technology sector was vital to create employment for the youth as well as improve the economy.

“The future is technology. The Special Technology Zone (STZ) is a complete ecosystem. The provincial government generated resources for the project which will have a positive impact on next generations,” the prime minister told the ceremony.

18/01/2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday held a telephonic conversation to discuss a range of issues, including Afghanistan, ahead of their likely face-to-face meeting in Beijing next month.

This was the second telephonic conversation between the two leaders in four months. In September last year, the two leaders had exchanged views by telephone after the Afghan Taliban took control of Kabul in August in the wake of the chaotic exit of the US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan. Moscow and Islamabad share a common view on Afghanistan as they have long buried the Cold War rivalry and now have been making efforts to deepen their cooperation. Both the countries favour continued engagement with the interim Taliban government while at the same time asking the US to lift economic sanctions against the war-torn country.

17/01/2022

Tears, pain, and a defiant five-set loss marked Andy Murray's last appearance at the Australian Open but the Scot will stroll Melbourne Park's grounds with a positive outlook for the first time in three years.

On Saturday, Murray played his first ATP final since Antwerp in 2019. Although he lost in straight sets to Russian bruiser Aslan Karatsev at the Sydney Tennis Classic, it was an encouraging start to the year for the Briton.

"There are many positive things to having good runs in these tournaments," Murray told reporters. "I didn't have to worry so much about that before."

Since major surgery on his troublesome hip in 2019, little has come easy to the 34-year-old who won the last of his three Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2016. His last match at Melbourne Park was a grinding five-set defeat by Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut where he gave everything he had.

At his pre-match media conference, he had sobbed uncontrollably, revealing his hip pain was so bad that he thought his career might be over. Another fitness setback saw him miss the 2020 tournament and last year it was a Covid-19 infection and Australia's strict 14-day quarantine rule that scuttled his return. Now, he arrives at Melbourne Park with a wildcard and a ranking outside the top 100, a far cry from his halcyon days as a feared competitor who reached the final five times.

Bouquet

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