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☆ Pakistan election 2024: Millions will head to the polls in an election mired in controversy
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Rhea Mogul | Sophia Saifi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —Millions in Pakistan will head to the polls on Thursday for a general election in which old dynasties are vying for power while the country’s widely popular former leader languishes behind bars unable to stand and militants ramp up deadly attacks. Mobile internet has been suspended in various districts of the province, leading to concerns of a nationwide blackout. A street is festooned with posters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on February 4, 2024. Sharif remains widely popular in Pakistan’s Punjab province – the country’s most populous and a key electoral battleground – where his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party has been lauded for advancing mega infrastructural projects. Standing against him is Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 35-year-old son of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto, seeking to reestablish his Pakistan People’s Party as a major political force.

Persons: languishes, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, Nawaz Sharif, ARIF, Volker Türk, ”, Liz Throssell, Imran Khan’s, Khan, Sharif, Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Benazir Bhutto Organizations: Pakistan CNN —, Islamic State, Mobile, Foreign, ARIF ALI, AFP, Getty, United Nations, Human Rights, “, Cricket, PTI, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan People’s Party Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, country’s, Balochistan, Islamic State Pakistan Province, Iran, Afghanistan, Lahore, Imran Khan’s Pakistan, Punjab

☆ Analysis: At this general election in Pakistan, old dynasties vie for power and populist Imran Khan languishes in prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Sophia Saifi | Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

That sets the stage for a difficult road to recovery for whoever wins in a nation where no democratically elected prime minister has ever completed a full term in office. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan attends a lawyers' convention in Lahore on September 21, 2022. Veteran Sharif will face a strong challenge, however, from first-time candidate for Prime Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 35, son of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto. Manahil Ahmed, 23, called Pakistan’s political environment “particularly hostile” right now. For Pakistan’s military and police forces, the last year was the bloodiest in a decade.

Persons: Imran Khan, –, Arif Ali, Nawaz Sharif, Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, Khan –, Khan, Fareed Khan, ”, Rabiya Arooj, Khan’s, Bushra Bibi, Imran Khan's, Asad Zaidi, Pakistan’s, Farzana Shaikh, “, ’, Murtaza Solang, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Mohsin Raza, he’s, Raja Ikram, Ameer Hamza, Manahil Ahmed, Shaikh, Hussain Nadim, Maurice R, Greenberg, ‘, Aamir Qureshi, Shoaib Tanveer, Baou Nadeem, ” Shaikh, Farooq Naeem, “ Sharif, He’s, Tim Willasey Organizations: Pakistan CNN —, Getty, PTI, World Bank, Pakistan, Bloomberg, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, CNN, for Research, Security Studies, Pakistan’s People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Baloch Liberation Army, Yale University, Pakistan Army –, Workers, King’s College London Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan CNN — Pakistan, Lahore, AFP, Karachi, “, Rawalpindi, Asia, Hafizabad, Khan’s, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, India, Afghanistan, Iran, State Khorasan, restive Balochistan, Balochistan, Punjab, Sharif, States, China, British

☆ Pakistan’s Lahore is the latest megacity to shut down as pollution chokes swathes of South Asia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Lahore has become the latest megacity to shut down as pollution chokes swathes of South Asia, where nearly 50 million people have been breathing toxic air for nearly a week. Commuters make their way through a busy street amid smoggy conditions in Lahore on November 7, 2023. The PM2.5 levels in all these cities far exceed the World Health Organization’s limit and illustrate a growing concern for South Asian countries as they experience rapid industrializations and population booms that are fueling pollution levels. Commuters make their way along the Signature Bridge amid heavy smog conditions in New Delhi on November 9, 2023. The study also found that every single one of India’s 1.4 billion residents endures annual average pollution levels that exceed guidelines set by the World Health Organization.

Persons: Mohsin Naqvi, Arif Ali, Arun Sankar Organizations: CNN, Authorities, Lahore –, Getty, Getty Images Dhaka, Energy, Institute, University of Chicago, World Health Organization, Doctors Locations: Lahore, South Asia, Swiss, Pakistan’s Punjab, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, AFP, Pakistan, India, New Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, India’s, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangladesh, Delhi

CNN —One year after catastrophic floods devastated swathes of Pakistan, some 4 million children in the South Asian nation remain without access to safe water, the United Nations children’s agency has warned. “Vulnerable children living in flood-affected areas have endured a horrific year,” Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, said in the statement. “The climate-related disaster deepened pre-existing inequities for children and families in affected districts,” UNICEF said in the statement. Children pick vegetables from water at a flooded market after heavy rainfall in Lahore on June 26, 2023. Fadil from UNICEF said the agency has called on the government of Pakistan and its partners to “increase and sustain investment in basic social services for children and families.”He added: “We cannot forget the children of Pakistan.

Persons: ” Abdullah Fadil, “, Asim Hafeez, Dera Allah Yar, Fida Hussain, Imran Khan, Khan, ”, Stephen Innes, Arif Ali, Fadil Organizations: CNN, United Nations, UNICEF, UNICEF Representative, Bloomberg, Getty, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Capital Economics, Analysts Locations: Pakistan, Karachi Division, Sindh province, Pakistan’s, Dera, Jaffarabad district, Balochistan, AFP, Asia, Lahore, South Asia, Afghanistan, India

Yet the final days of Imran Khan’s political career tell a contrasting tale. Khan’s supporters – some armed with sticks and stones – marched through cities, chanting slogans against the ruling dispensation. To his supporters, Khan was seen as a political martyr, someone they had vowed to defend till the very end. Analysts say Khan’s arrest following a yearlong showdown with the military sends a pointed message to the former prime minister and his supporters. “Imran Khan’s political will wasn’t strong enough to begin with from what we saw.

Persons: Imran Khan’s, Khan, Khan’s, –, ”, Arifa Noor, “, Imran Khan, Jemima Goldsmith, Patrick Durand, Sygma, Pervez Musharraf, Arif Ali, Noor, “ Imran Khan’s, Shehbaz Sharif, Aamir Qureshi, Mr, Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, Salaar Khan, Khawaja Asif, Khan won’t, “ Imran, ” Noor Organizations: CNN, Cricket, Getty, Oxford University, Movement for Justice, PML, AP, Pakistan’s, PTI, CNN Monday Locations: Pakistan, Lahore, Islamabad, British India, It’s, Melbourne, Australia, Khan, British, AFP, India, Afghanistan, United States, Gujranwala

☆ An ex-Apple designer showed off a futuristic AI device that projects phone calls onto your hand
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A new device by Humane can project phone calls onto the palm of a hand. In a video of the event that Ali shared with Insider, Chaudhri's talk appeared to be interrupted by the insistent chime of a call. But instead of reaching for a device in his pocket, Chaudhri simply turned over his hand to gaze at his palm. A representative for TED indicated that the video that Ali shared was likely captured from a livestream. "Humane will be releasing further details on how the device works in the coming months," a company spokesperson told Insider.

Arif Ali | AFP | Getty ImagesAbout 90% of the global population in 2022 experienced unhealthy air quality, and only six countries met the World Health Organization's recommendations of safe air pollutant levels, according to a new report from Swiss air quality technology company IQAir. The report found that the top five most polluted countries in 2022 were Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh. Lahore's air quality worsened to 97.4 micrograms of PM 2.5 particles per cubic meter in 2022 from 86.5 in the year prior, making it the most polluted city in the world. The 2022 report used air quality data from more than 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and air quality sensors from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions and territories. "Too many people around the world don't know that they are breathing polluted air," Aidan Farrow, senior air quality scientist at Greenpeace International, said in a statement.

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