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Hi all, on Monday July 27.
A few updates on this new week. Substack, which is the platform we use for our newsletter, will now tell its subscribers if any newsletter has A.I. generated content. Which isn’t a big deal for us since we usually use it for images and when we do, we mention it in the caption when it is.
We’re hitting almost a year when I took over this newsletter myself and aah, it’s been a fun ride. I enjoy it as it sets the day for me but it’s super hard work getting it together. Although I don’t want to but the next step for a newsletter is to ask you, our reader to pledge support to us. If you enjoy the newsletter, please do pledge your support. You won’t be charged ANYTHING at all at this time, but we’ll have an idea about how many of you want to keep reading it (and me writing it).
I’ll be brutally honest: I believe a good newsletter on Pakistan is a NECESSITY and I believe it has value, but there aren’t many of us around. Do pledge your support and I hope we can (and we will even if you’re unable to pledge at this time) continue this journey together.
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Here’s to a new week and I do wonder what that puppet looked like in highlight 2.
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Azad Jammu and Kashmir is voting in the first phase of the Legislative Assembly elections today. The numbers you need to know are: 1.4 million voters, voting across 13 constituencies with nearly 300 candidates running for elections. 2,400 polling stations have been set up and the elections will continue into the first week of August.
The federal govt has released the latest Toshakhana records, revealing what all President Zardari, PM Shehbaz and other senior officials got from foreign dignitaries. Officials say that all have been deposited with the govt and they will keep releasing what all has been received and then deposited with the govt, in the interest of transparency. Zardari was given a tea set, sword, a Vacheron Constantin watch (with generally ranges from $15,000 to over $650,000 USD) and other gifts. Shehbaz got two Rolexes, one Patek Philippe watch, a car and clock models, and a jewelry set among other things. Interestingly, among other gifts, Deputy PM Ishaq Dar got a Burmese puppet.
YouTuber Rajab Butt has been booked in an assault case in Lahore, after a woman accused him and his associates with assaulting her and her friends in a cafe. The woman alleges that one of the people Butt was with opened fire on her and her friends after harassing and slapping her friend. She is accusing Butt of being a part of the assault. Police has registered a case and launched an investigation.
Kuwait has officially entered into a five year defence cooperation agreement with Pakistan, for closer collaboration in military training, intelligence sharing and defence technology. Pak won’t be deploying troops to Kuwait but it it can become a broader partnership with investment in energy and other industries.
Want to talk to your books? Now you can with new AI reading tools that are turning books into interactive conversations. You can ask questions about characters, plot and context or just have a conversation. Amazon’s Kindle and Audible are already rolling out the features but a larger debate continues on author consent, rights and compensation. But what our mums would tell us is now here: books can be your best friend too.
Pause in the war (again) as the US and Iran give room for talks (again). However, the allegations and threats against each other continue. Tehran is now saying that unnamed regional countries are helping the US and condemned the Ukraine for attacking one of Iran’s ships. Ukraine took responsibility, saying that they had attacked the vessel with a long-range strike but that it was only targeting vessels that are transporting military cargo between Iran and Russia. Economically, pressure continues on global prices although the Pak stock market has opened today in green today, gaining 5,000 points during intraday trade.
If you’re not feeling well, don’t ignore the feeling and get it checked. It might be more serious than you think.
Exposing Pak studies, yes, please!
In this episode of The Current Podcast, journalist, analyst and author Raza Rumi goes beyond standard classroom textbooks to examine the private life of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, his secular political vision and how his untimely death in 1948 triggered the first major power grab in the nation's history.
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