HBL and Agrilift to Digitize Agriculture Sector

HBL has entered into a strategic partnership with Agrilift to accelerate the digitization efforts in the agriculture sector. This move reiterates HBL’s commitment to playing a leading role in developing the agricultural sector and promoting food security under the guidance of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and in line with Pakistan’s strategic priorities.

Agrilift, a pioneer in innovative agricultural solutions, is collaborating with HBL to deploy its advanced ‘Farm Monitoring’ solution, Agrilift SmartRisk. This state-of-the-art solution will provide HBL with invaluable insights into farming practices, crop yields, and potential risks. By leveraging Agrilift SmartRisk, HBL aims to enhance its credit limits for farmers based on performance data.

Commenting on the collaboration, Ahmed Naazer Minhaj, Head of Agriculture Banking – HBL, stated, “By harnessing Agrilift’s technology, HBL is poised to revolutionize the crop lending cycle, ensuring greater financial inclusion and security for farmers. This partnership will provide farmers with the tools they need to optimize their farm practices.”

India-Iran port deal to face U.S. sanctions

The US State Department said that India’s deal with Iran for developing and operating the Chabahar port was not exempt from US sanctions but did not say if Washington plans to impose sanctions on New Delhi over this agreement.

India announced earlier that it had signed a 10-year contract with Iran to develop and operate the Iranian port.

At the State Department briefing, when spokesperson Vedant Patel was informed about the deal, he said: “We are aware of these reports that Iran and India have signed a deal concerning the Chabahar port. I will let the government of India speak to its own foreign policy goals vis-à-vis the Chabahar port as well as its own bilateral relationship with Iran.”

Explaining the American position on the deal, he said the US sanctions on Iran “remain in place, and we will continue to enforce them.” Asked if India was given an exemption from the sanctions for this deal, Mr Patel said, “No.”

Pakistan joins the UNSC for the eighth time

Pakistan is set to join the UN Security Council for the eighth time on June 6, representing the Asia-Pacific group within the United Nations.

Pakistan has been elected to the Security Council seven times, tied with Colombia, with the most recent term in 2013. Additionally, Pakistan is among the countries that have had a diplomat serve as president of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Pakistan’s election to the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the term 2025-26 would provide an opportunity to promote international and regional peace and stability,” said the country’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram. Ambassador Akram highlighted the profound changes in the external environment, noting new configurations in the international order marked by technology, geostrategic conflicts, competition between major powers, and climate change that were reshaping the global landscape.

Elaborating on Pakistan’s active participation within the UN system, Akram emphasised efforts to secure the implementation of UNSC resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. He also underscored Pakistan’s significant contributions to peacekeeping operations under the United Nations. Pakistan has participated in 46 UN peacekeeping missions across 29 countries. As of 2023, 168 Pakistani peacekeepers lost their lives during UN missions since 1948.

Brahvi poet Mir Ulfat passes away

Renowned Brahvi and Urdu language poet and story writer Mir Mohammad Ulfat passed.

Ulfat had been ill for some time and was being treated at a hospital in Quetta. His funeral was attended by a large number of mourners, including poets, writers, and journalists. He was buried in a local graveyard.

Ulfat started his career as a compere in Radio Pakistan and later became a broadcaster at Pakistan Television’s Quetta centre in October 1974.
He was also a story writer and was given a Presidential Award in 2010 for his books on the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in Brahvi language.

Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti has expressed grief and sorrow over Ulfat’s death and paid him tribute for his contributions in promoting local languages.

The CM said the late poet’s services to promote Brahvi and other languages will be remembered, and the gulf created by his death will never be filled.

Palestinian Journalists Win International Award

Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza have been awarded the 2024 World Press Freedom Hero Award.

The award has been given to a group of journalists for the first time, according to a statement released by the awarding body. The list included Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, son, daughter, and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. The award also paid tribute to Bilal Jadallah, often referred to as the “father figure” of journalism in Gaza. He, too, was killed by Israeli shelling in November 2023. The award, jointly presented by the International Press Institute (IPI) and International Media Support (IMS), “recognises the extraordinary courage and resilience that Palestinian journalists have demonstrated in covering the war in Gaza.”

Since October 2023, Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza, and Palestinian journalists “have shouldered the responsibility of reporting inside the territory. They have persevered despite airstrikes, communication blackouts, displacement, the devastating loss of children, partners, parents and other family members, and an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.” The statement added that at least 105 journalists and media workers have been killed in the region since the start of the war eight months ago.

Congress lashes out at Modi

India’s main opposition party condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for anti-Muslim comments in election campaign speeches that have heightened concerns over sectarian tensions in the world’s biggest democracy.

Modi remains popular across much of India, and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win this general election when it concludes in early June.

Since voting began in April, the 73-year-old premier has stepped up his rhetoric targeting India’s main religious divide in a bid to rally voters. He has referred in campaign rallies to Muslims as “infiltrators” and claimed the main opposition Congress party would redistribute the nation’s wealth to Muslims if it won.

P. Chidambaram, a former Indian finance minister and senior lawmaker for Congress, said that Modi was playing “his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims. The world is watching and analysing the Indian prime minister’s statements, and they do not bring glory to India,” he said.

After Modi suggested that a former prime minister from Congress had planned for a separate “Muslim budget,” the party’s general secretary Jairam Ramesh condemned his statements as “nonsensical.” “This is typical Modi bombast and bogusness,” he said.

Since he swept to power a decade ago, Modi has sought to align India’s politics more closely with its majority faith in defiance of the country’s officially secular constitution.

Google to introduce AI-generated answers

Google is going to introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years.

“I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, `AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said at an event in California. The feature would soon be available in other countries, he added.

With the change, many of Google’s search results will feature an AI “overview” at the top of the page before the more typical unfurling of links and features. The search engine’s AI answers, generated by Google’s Gemini AI technology, offer a paragraph or two of explanation with links to the online sources that supplied the information. “You can ask whatever’s on your mind or whatever you need to get done _ from researching to planning to brainstorming _ and Google will take care of the legwork,” said Google Search team boss Liz Reid.

U.S. warned India if it attacks Pakistan

A report released by the US Institute of Peace (USIP) warns that fully backing any Indian action against Pakistan might lead to an uncontrollable spiral of escalation, eventually risking a nuclear exchange.

The study, conducted by a group of senior US diplomats and scholars, highlights the possibility of the Indian government attributing attacks to Pakistan regardless of their origin and considering cross-border strikes against Pakistani military, intelligence, and other targets. The authors urge US policymakers to “keep in mind that giving the Indian government carte blanche on military action in Pakistan and Afghanistan could also lead to a spiral of escalation and hostilities that would ultimately distract India from countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.”

The study group that compiled the report includes Ambassador Anne Patterson, Dr Tricia Bacon, Ambassador Michael P. McKinley, Dr Joshua White, and Dr Brian Finucane. Ms Patterson, a former US ambassador to Pakistan, notes that US policymakers “dramatically reduced attention to counterterrorism in South Asia” after their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Now, “Americans want to see Afghanistan and Pakistan in the rear-view mirror,” she adds.

Clashes break out over poppy crop clearing

Clashes broke out between Taliban forces tasked with clearing poppy crops and farmers in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province. Poppy cultivators threw rocks and demanded that Taliban security units not destroy their crops. In response, Taliban authorities fired their guns to disperse.

A statement from the Taliban’s army unit in Badakhshan said there had been protests to prevent poppy clearing in Argo but did not note any deaths or injuries as a result. A Taliban official who was not authorised to speak on the incident but who was part of the units sent to destroy poppy crops, said residents came out to resist the clearing with sticks, stones, and shovels, wounding some Taliban forces.

A journalist in the provincial capital, Faizabad, saw three helicopters heading in the direction of neighbouring Argo, and a checkpoint had blocked anyone from travelling to the district by road. Afghanistan was the largest producer of opium in the world before poppy cultivation was banned in a decree by the Taliban supreme leader in April 2022.

Pakistan’s 3D film set for Cannes Film Festival

Pakistan’s 3D-animated feature film, ‘The Chronicles of Umro Ayyar,’ will be showcased at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The production house, Ingenuity Production, will showcase the feature film online.

Haris Basharat, CEO of Ingenuity Production, said the film would showcase “the rich storytelling and cinematic prowess emerging from Pakistan.”

Described as an adventure fantasy, the film recounts the thrilling adventures of legendary trickster hero Umro Ayyar as he travels through time and magical realms.

The statement added, “Umro Ayyar’s journey becomes a testament to the power of forging bonds that transcend racial, gender, class, age, and personality differences.”

“We want to put the potential of the Pakistani animation industry on display on the world stage. We’re confident that the film’s stunning visuals and story will captivate audiences worldwide,” Mr Basharat added.

Thailand celebrates return of looted statues from U.S.

Two statues smuggled out of Thailand, including a 900-year-old sculpture that spent three decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, were welcomed back to the kingdom in an official repatriation ceremony in Bangkok.

A 129-centimeter statue of Shiva, dubbed “Golden Boy,” was repatriated after being linked to British-Thai art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was charged with trafficking looted relics from Cambodia and Thailand shortly before he died in 2020.

The statue, displayed in the Met from 1988 to 2023, was discovered near the Cambodian border during an archaeological dig at Prasat Ban Yang ruins more than 50 years ago. It is believed to have been smuggled out of Thailand by Latchford in 1975. A second bronze sculpture, a 43-centimeter kneeling female figure with her hands above her head in a Thai greeting posture dubbed “Kneeling Woman,” was also returned after it was linked to Latchford. The return of the items comes as a growing number of museums worldwide discuss steps to repatriate looted artworks.

Missing Bangladeshi lawmaker found murdered in India

A member of Bangladesh’s ruling party was found murdered in the Indian city of Kolkata more than a week after he went missing.

Anwarul Azim Anar, 56, who won his third consecutive term in a constituency in the border district of Jhenaidah from the Awami League party, went missing on May 13, a day after going to India for medical treatment, according to his relatives.

Khan told reporters that three Bangladeshis were arrested over the lawmaker’s death.

Bangladesh police and Kolkata police were conducting a joint probe and could not “disclose all information at the moment for the sake of the investigation,” he said.

Indian police told Reuters that a murder case had been registered in the matter, and the lawmaker’s body was yet to be recovered.

“We have secured video footage from the housing complex where he was staying during the visit … some blood stains were also seen during the investigation,” said Akhilesh Chaturvedi, a senior police officer in Kolkata’s home state of West Bengal.

Another senior police officer, who requested anonymity, said the assailants “may be” linked to terror outfits.