Current Final

Author: News Desk

  • Fawad Khan’s Bollywood comeback begins in Dubai as India says no to ‘Abir Gulaal’ launch

    Fawad Khan’s Bollywood comeback begins in Dubai as India says no to ‘Abir Gulaal’ launch

    Pakistani superstar Fawad Khan is officially returning to Bollywood after a nine-year hiatus with the upcoming romantic comedy film Abir Gulaab. While the film has already sparked controversy in India, its international promotional journey has begun, with a music launch event held in Dubai.

    Photos and videos from the launch event at Dubai’s Global Village have gone viral across social media. Khan, along with co-star Vaani Kapoor and the rest of the cast, attended the event, drawing massive attention online. The on-screen chemistry between Fawad and Vaani is a hot topic.

    According to reports, the film’s music album was released online just before the Dubai event. Abir Gulaal is directed by Aarti S. Bagdi and was filmed in the scenic locations of London. Fawad Khan plays the lead role of Abir Singh, a charming and witty character, while Vaani Kapoor plays the female lead, Gulaal Bajaj.

    At the event, Fawad Khan expressed his experience of working with Vaani Kapoor, calling her a “talented and engaging co-star.”

    He said, “I’ve worked with many amazing actors, and Vaani was a great person to chat with on set. Simplicity in films is important so viewers can enjoy without confusion.”

    However, Fawad’s Bollywood comeback hasn’t been smooth. According to Indian media, Raj Thackeray’s party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), has objected to the release of Abir Gulaal in India. This opposition is reportedly why the film’s first promo event was shifted to Dubai.

    Fawad Khan was last seen in Bollywood in 2016’s Kapoor & Sons. Now, nearly a decade later, his return has made headlines not only for the film but also for reigniting cross-border cinematic conversations.

    As fans eagerly await his big-screen comeback, one thing is clear: Fawad Khan’s return to Bollywood is already making waves on and off the screen.

    The romantic comedy is set to hit cinemas worldwide on 9 May 2025.

  • ‘Grief to gallery’: The woman behind the £51k Malala portrait

    ‘Grief to gallery’: The woman behind the £51k Malala portrait

    Working under the name Zara Muse, Alexandra Johnson, a former city trader with no formal art background, has made a name for herself as an artist. Earlier this April, her painting of Malala Yousafzai was sold for £51,200 at Bonhams, a prestigious global auction house.

    Her work is known for crafting richly textured portraits of women, each piece honouring quiet perseverance. During the UK lockdown in 2020, while still processing the death of her mother, Johnson found herself in her kitchen, palette knife in hand, attempting to cope with her grief.

    “Malala represents strength and bravery — the kind of woman I want to celebrate through my work,” she said in an interview with the BBC.

    The portrait of Malala was put up for auction by one of Johnson’s collectors.

    Now 27, Malala, was shot in the head by the Taliban at 15 merely for attending school in Pakistan, and is now a global symbol for girls’ education, peace, and standing against extremism.

    For Johnson, whose own experiences involve grief and caregiving, Malala’s narrative resonated deeply.

    “I always go for powerful women, not for [their] jobs and career, just for their inner strength,” said Johnson.

    In 2002, Johnson left the corporate sector to become a full-time mother, and later a full-time carer after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her mother, Janet, who donated a kidney to her brother at age 60, laid the groundwork for Johnson’s initial artistic endeavours. “Everything I create is in her honour,” she states.

    During the UK lockdown in 2020, Alexandra Johnson was still processing the death of her mother. A former city trader without a formal background in art, she found herself in her kitchen, palette knife in hand, attempting to cope with her grief. Little did she know at that moment that those initial strokes would pave the way for the eventual sale of her painting of Malala Yousafzai for £51,200 at Bonhams, a prestigious auction house globally.

    Her debut painting, Angelique, fetched £22,500 in 2023. Another piece, Shape of Stillness, was sold for £47,500 in December. However, it is the portrait of Malala that stands as the emotional centrepiece of her artistic career—an artwork born from grief, strength, and an unwavering belief in women supporting one another.

  • Saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions of dollars, reveals CEO

    Saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions of dollars, reveals CEO

    Being polite towards AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and showing them respect by saying “please” and “thank you”, costs the company millions of dollars, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed.

    The revelation came in response to an X user who asked how much energy and money was lost due to people being polite to AI, to which Altman said it was “tens of millions of dollars well spent”.

    According to experts, being kind to AI chatbots helps them generate better replies. Kurtis Beavers, the design manager at Microsoft, pointed out that courteous cues could result in the AI providing more courteous and cooperative responses.


    As per a 2024 study, 67% of American users were courteous to chatbots, with 55% stating that it was the correct thing to do and 12% doing so in case of an “AI revolt in the future”.

    However, even little modifications like additional sentences raise processing costs as ChatGPT and other generative AI models demand a lot of power amid an enormous number of requests sent every day.

    As per a joint research by The Washington Post and the University of California, it takes 0.14 kilowatt-hours of electricity to create a single 100-word AI-generated email, which is equivalent to the power of 14 LED lights for an hour. That’s 7.5 kWh for a single weekly email over a year.

    Data centers that house these systems already consume around 2% of the world’s power, and this percentage is predicted to rise as AI becomes more widespread.

  • ‘They come to India for holidays’: Sehwag slams Maxwell, Livingstone over poor IPL performance

    ‘They come to India for holidays’: Sehwag slams Maxwell, Livingstone over poor IPL performance

    Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has criticised foreign players Glenn Maxwell and Liam Livingstone for their poor performance in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), saying they were “more focused on enjoying their time in India rather than helping their teams win”.

    As per the details Sehwag accused Maxwell and Livingstone of “lacking passion and hunger to perform”, and said they looked more interested in partying and relaxing instead of putting in the hard work required to win matches.

    “Maxwell… and Livingstone have no hunger anymore. They come to India to spend their holidays. It doesn’t seem like they care about their teams or winning a trophy,” he said.

    The 46-year-old former opener didn’t hold back, adding that many overseas players talk big but fail to deliver on the field. “Out of the many foreign players I’ve played with, maybe only one or two actually had the hunger to win.”

    However, he also praised a few overseas stars whom he believed always gave their best. He named David Warner, AB de Villiers and Glenn McGrath as examples of professional and passionate players. 


    “These were the kind of players who would come up to me and say, ‘I’ll win the game for you, play me.’ They were serious about performance and had a winning mindset,” Sehwag said.

    Glenn Maxwell, known for his explosive batting and game-changing abilities, had a highly disappointing performance at this year’s edition of the IPL. The Australian all-rounder managed to score only 41 runs in six matches.

    England’s Livingstone, who is known for his aggressive batting and part-time spin bowling, also failed to deliver. He scored just 87 runs in seven matches despite Royal Challengers Bengaluru spending ₹8.75 crore on him.

  • Punjab govt agency bars Ahmadi community from buying land, even in Chenabnagar

    Punjab govt agency bars Ahmadi community from buying land, even in Chenabnagar

    A Punjab government agency has explicitly excluded members of the Ahmadiyya community from participating in an upcoming plot auction in the headquarters of the Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya Chenabnagar as well as nearby towns of Chiniot, Jhang and Shorkot, a leading English daily reported Monday.

    As per the details, the Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency (PHATA) published an advertisement on April 17, announcing the auction of residential and commercial plots. The ad by Jhang PHATA Sub-Region Deputy Director Tariq Mahmood, however, explicitly excluded members of the Ahmadiyya community and said that only Muslims were eligible to bid for the 17 residential and commercial plots.

    The ad, reports said, explicitly added that individuals belonging to Ahmadi, Qadiani, Mirzai or Lahori groups were prohibited from participating in the auction for commercial and residential plots in Satellite Town Jhang, Era Development Scheme Chiniot, Era Development Scheme Chenabnagar and Era Development Scheme Shorkot.

    Saying that members of the community were not allowed to participate in the auction, the ad further stated that if the authority later found anyone from the Ahmadiyya community had submitted a bid, their payment, plot or any other materials shall not be returned.

    The ad was condemned by rights activists, legal experts and minority rights groups, calling it a violation of Article 25 of the Constitution, which ensured equal treatment under the law for all citizens, prohibiting discrimination based on religion.

    “This is a clear violation of fundamental rights. If a government agency openly discriminates against the citizens based on faith, what hope is there for equality before the law?” lawyer Ehsan Ullah Jatt said.

    Condemning the policy, spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community Amir Mahmood said it was not just about plots but also about the state endorsing “apartheid against Ahmadis”.

    “If we are barred from basic economic opportunities, how can we claim to be equal citizens?” he asked.

    PHATA officials, on the other hand, are yet to issue any clarification or justification for the exclusionary clause.

    Separately, a Union Council chairman among 14 other suspects involved in the lynching of an Ahmadi man in Karachi’s Saddar area have been arrested. 

    Laeeq Ahmad Cheema, a 46-year-old businessman, was beaten to death when hundreds of religiopolitical party supporters stormed a hall belonging to the Ahmadiyya community to bar them from performing religious rituals last Friday.

    A report quoted South Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Syed Asad Raza as saying that 15 suspects had so far been arrested with the help of CCTV footage and technical data.

    “They [arrested suspects] were physically present at the murder scene,” he said, adding that the suspects belonged to the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

  • Pregnant Muzaffargarh woman assaulted by husband, in-laws, son; thrown out on the street

    Pregnant Muzaffargarh woman assaulted by husband, in-laws, son; thrown out on the street

    In a shocking incident in Muzaffargarh, an eight-month pregnant woman was subjected to severe torture by her husband, son and in-laws, leaving her critically injured with broken legs and arms.

    As per the details, the assault took place in the Mouza Basti Arif area of Jatoi tehsil where the woman was allegedly assaulted by her husband and in-laws with sticks, iron rods and axes. The accused, reports said, later threw the woman out of their house and on the road.

    With locals informing the police, rescue personnel rushed the critically injured woman to a hospital for medical attention.

    In her statement to the police, the victim revealed that she was subjected to the inhumane treatment over suspicions regarding her character.

    Police have filed a complaint against five, including the woman’s husband, father-in-law, brother-in-law and son, at the Jatoi police station despite the victim’s family initially refusing to seek legal action.

    Police officials said that they were currently conducting raids in the area to apprehend the accused involved in this act of brutal violence.

  • Signboard restricting bikes, rickshaws in Lahore’s premier business district removed after social media uproar

    Signboard restricting bikes, rickshaws in Lahore’s premier business district removed after social media uproar

    A signboard installed by the Central Business District (CBD) authorities, which restricted the entry of motorcyclists, rickshaws and a couple other transport vehicles to the provincial capital’s premier business district, has been removed following strong reactions on social media.

    In a Facebook post on Sunday, senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique had also objected to the signboard.

    “Central Business District Authority placed this board [signboard] at the start of the Kalma Chowk/Walton-road flyover. Motorcycles and rickshaws are public’s choice of transport. A ban on such transport in the area is unacceptable,” he had said, adding that such a ban would make the CBD a “no-go area”.

    He had also later revealed having spoken to CBD authorities, announcing that the restriction would be lifted and the flyover be declared thoroughfare.

    “Alhamdulillah, the mentioned board has been removed. Thank you, CBD,” he wrote in a subsequent post.

    Earlier, CBD successfully completed the upgradation of Walton Road, covering a stretch of 4.5 kilometres.

    A CBD spokesperson said that the project marked a significant step towards modernising Lahore’s urban infrastructure and improving the daily commute for thousands of residents.

    As part of the upgradation, a newly-installed inaugural monument now stands as a symbol of progress at Walton Road. Out of the five planned overhead pedestrian crossing bridges, two have been installed, with the remaining three nearing completion.

    The key features of the project include latest sewerage system, diversion of Adda Nullah, Major Ishaq Shaheed flyover, the installation of lane markings and modern LED streetlights.

  • Bilal Maqsood calls out ‘use of toxic paint’ on Karachi children

    Bilal Maqsood calls out ‘use of toxic paint’ on Karachi children

    Renowned Pakistani singer Bilal Maqsood has expressed concern over children being painted with harmful chemicals and made to stand under the scorching sun as street performers in various parts of Karachi.

    Taking to Instagram, Maqsood addressed the Ministry of Health, urging them to take action against this alarming practice. He highlighted how young children, often seen at major locations like Baloch Colony, Ayesha Manzil, Sea View and Ittehad in Defence, were being coated in shiny silver or gold paint and forced to stand for hours — while passersby handed them money.

    “You will find many such children on Ittehad and Sea View with their faces covered in bright paint, standing on the roads in this intense heat,” he wrote.

    Maqsood expressed concern over the health risks, saying heartbreaking thing was that the paint was often made with aluminum powder or other dangerous chemicals, which are extremely harmful. “Standing under the sun for long hours can cause serious skin problems and even skin cancer.”

    “Something needs to be done. Please reconsider, educate, and protect these children before it’s too late,” he said.

    The post has sparked discussion on social media, with many supporting the message. Some even pointed out that similar scenes were being witnessed in Lahore where young children were being subjected to the same harmful practice.

  • Big names return as BCCI announces central contracts for Indian men’s team

    Big names return as BCCI announces central contracts for Indian men’s team

    The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the central contracts for the Indian men’s senior team for the 2024–25 season on Monday, April 21.

    Star players Rohit Sharma (ODI and Test captain), Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jasprit Bumrah have been placed in Grade A+, the highest category.

    One of the biggest talking points is the return of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, who were left out last year after not playing domestic cricket. Both have made a strong comeback and earned contracts this time.

    In total, 34 players have been awarded contracts. While most names are familiar, a few new faces have been added as well. Promising youngsters like Abhishek Sharma, who has impressed in T20Is, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who recently debuted in T20Is and Tests, and pacer Harshit Rana have received their first-ever central contracts.

    Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who played a key role in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 and Champions Trophy 2025 wins, has been promoted from Grade B to Grade A. Retired spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is no longer on the list.

    Pacer Mohammed Siraj, who was dropped from the ODI team before the Champions Trophy, has kept his spot in Grade A.

    Shreyas Iyer has been included in Grade B, along with young star Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was in Grade C last year.

    Some players have been dropped from the list. These include KS Bharat (Test wicketkeeper) and Avesh Khan (T20 pacer). Batter Sarfaraz Khan, who has played for India in Tests, has now earned a place in Grade C after meeting the match criteria.

    Surprisingly, Varun Chakravarthy, who was the hero in India’s Champions Trophy campaign, has also made a comeback after missing out earlier. However, T20I wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma has been left out this time.


    BCCI Central Contracts 2024-25

    Grade A+ (4 players):

    Rohit Sharma
    Virat Kohli
    Ravindra Jadeja
    Jasprit Bumrah


    Grade A (6 players):

    Mohammed Siraj
    KL Rahul
    Shubman Gill
    Hardik Pandya
    Mohammed Shami
    Rishabh Pant


    Grade B (5 players):

    Suryakumar Yadav
    Kuldeep Yadav
    Axar Patel
    Yashasvi Jaiswal
    Shreyas Iyer


    Grade C (19 players):

    Arshdeep Singh
    Rinku Singh
    Tilak Varma
    Ruturaj Gaikwad
    Shivam Dube
    Ravi Bishnoi
    Washington Sundar
    Mukesh Kumar
    Sanju Samson
    Prasidh Krishna
    Rajat Patidar
    Dhruv Jurel
    Sarfaraz Khan
    Nitish Kumar Reddy
    Ishan Kishan
    Abhishek Sharma
    Akash Deep
    Varun Chakravarthy
    Harshit Rana

  • ‘Fawad Khan was born for films,’ Abir Gulaal co-star Vaani Kapoor can’t stop praising Pakistani heartthrob

    ‘Fawad Khan was born for films,’ Abir Gulaal co-star Vaani Kapoor can’t stop praising Pakistani heartthrob

    Bollywood actor Vaani Kapoor, who stars opposite renowned Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in the upcoming Hindi film Abir Gulaal, couldn’t stop praising him during a recent interview, saying “he was born for films”.

    “He was born to work in films,” Kapoor said while speaking to Red FM India as part of the film’s promotions.

    She also named him as her favourite actor. “Since I shot with Fawad recently and his film is about to release, I’d say he’s my favourite actor.”

    Kapoor admired his personality, calling him “supportive”, and said she genuinely enjoyed working alongside the Pakistani heartthrob.

    Meanwhile, the film’s second song English Rang Rasiya was released on April 18 and quickly gained traction, racking up 2.8 million views within a few hours. This follows the success of its first track, Khudaya Ishq, which also became a hit.

    Earlier this month, a short teaser of Abir Gulaal was unveiled, with the official release date set for May 9.

    Despite threats from Hindu extremist groups over Fawad Khan’s casting and the film’s India release, the team behind Abir Gulaal remains firm in their decision and is fully committed to releasing the film on schedule.

    Interestingly, several Indian celebrities, including Sunny Deol, Sushmita Sen and Ameesha Patel, have also voiced their support for Fawad Khan’s Bollywood return, calling his presence in Indian cinema a positive step for both countries.