Category: Lifestyle

Activist and leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, has been named in Time magazine’s ‘2024 Time100 Next’ list.

The list featured her for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights”. She is one of the 19 advocates Time selected for the list.

“I am deeply honoured and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by TIME,” Dr Mahrang wrote in a Facebook post with a link to the whole list.

She further added, “I dedicate this recognition to all Baloch women human rights defenders and families of victims of forcefully disappeared people.”

The Times Magazine’s list recognizes 100 young individuals “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact,” including artists, athletes, and advocates. Dr Mahrang was selected for her peaceful advocacy and “for all the hope she represents.”

The magazine also honoured her for her leadership in a December 2023 march to Islamabad, where she, along with hundreds of women, marched against extrajudicial kidnappings of Baloch people and demanded “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers”.

Dr Mahrang came to the spotlight as a primary school student who spearheaded protests after her father went missing in 2009 from outside a hospital in Karachi.

At the time, being the eldest of six siblings, she raised her voice and registered her protest by burning her school books in front of Quetta Press Club. Her father’s mutilated body was later found in 2011.

In December 2023, she led a march and a large sit-in in Islamabad to protest against missing people.

The Current also named Dr Mahrang Baloch as the Person of the Year in 2023.

As per a recent report, a total of 197 missing persons cases were reported in the first half of 2024 alone, with most being in Balochistan.

A warning issued by Pakistan Metreological Department (PMD) on Friday has warned of a possible outbreak of Dengue in the coming October, particularly in big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Larkana and Multan.

The PMD warned that dengue fever had deepened its roots and impacted the health of people over the last 10 years. A spokesperson said that fever season is especially strong during the post-monsoon season — September 20 to December 5.

1026 patients have been brought to the hospitals in the current season.

A rain emergency has been imposed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Water and Sanitation Authority is advised to drain out the water in three shifts only to avoid the accumulation of water that provokes dengue breeding.

Dawn quotes the PMD spokesperson as saying, “Dengue triggers during those periods when the temperature and humidity threshold remains 26-29 degrees Celsius (3-5 weeks) and 60 per cent, respectively. Moreover, rainfall remains more than 27mm with a maximum time lag period of three weeks. The active period for dengue attacks is two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset.”

Once the temperature falls below 16°C, the breeding starts declining as well. Past analysis and especially the retreat of monsoon provides an ideal environment for a dengue outbreak, he stressed.

After this public caution, the PMD advised all stakeholders to take preventive measures for the dengue outbreak.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, famous for novels and short stories featuring immigrant characters, has declined an award from New York City’s Noguchi Museum after it fired employees for wearing keffiyeh- a Palestinian scarf that is used to express solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The announcement was made by Noguchi Museum New York in a statement that read, “Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy.”

Jhumpa is a British-American author whose parents were Bengalis from the East Indian region. Her work mostly centres around immigrants. She won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize back in 2000 for her book Interpreter of Maladies.

Keffiyeh has become a symbol of resistance throughout the world as protestors demand an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Earlier, at the end of November 2023, three Palestinian students were shot for wearing their country’s traditional keffiyeh scarves in Vermont, USA.

On May 19, a 42-year-old Texas woman attempted to drown a 6-year-old Palestinian girl.

NASA has reported that a ‘mini moon’ will soon enter Earth’s orbit for a brief period as a result of its gravitational pull.

BBC reports that the Earth is about to get a second moon as a small asteroid is going to be captured by Earth’s gravitational pull from September 29 onwards.

Starting this weekend, the small asteroid is expected to spend about two months orbiting around the Earth.

Scientist Dr Jennifer Millard told BBC that the asteroid is predicted to leave the orbit on November 25.

The second moon will not be seen through the naked eye except through a professional telescope.

The asteroid was first noticed by NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (Atlas) on August 7.

A study related to the asteroid, published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, revealed that it came from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is full of rocks following an orbit just like it is around Earth.

Researchers say that if an asteroid is moving at the relatively slow speed of around 2,200mph (3,540km/h), Earth’s gravitational field exerts a strong influence, enough to trap it in its orbit temporarily, and this is exactly what has happened here.

The asteroid, named 2024 PT5, is approximately 10 metres long, which is tiny in comparison to Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of approximately 3,474km.

Social media has labelled Dr Shah Nawaz Kunbhar’s Hindu driver, Prem Kolhi, the real hero of the tragic ordeal in which the health professional was killed by police.

Kohli first tried his best to save the doctor’s body from an angry extremist mob and later buried him respectfully.

Dawn quotes Dr Shah Nawaz’s father, Mohammad Saleh Kunbhar, as saying that the mob also tried to lynch Prem Kolhi, who was bringing the body back home in a car after it was handed over by the police. He related that the mob tried to torch the car with the body and the driver inside but Prem managed to escape.

Social media users have lamented the brutal murder of the slain medic and praised Prem for his bravery.

Rabiner Kumar posted a picture of Prem and said, “He was fearless and not afraid of death. Premo considered him ( Dr Shahnawaz) a human being, and did the best what he could against the zombies.”

Journalist A. Waheed Murad posted a video of Kolhi burying the body, poignantly captioning it as “In the desert of Sindh, there was once a Premo”.

Journalist Rafi Raza posted Prem’s picture with the caption, “Prem is a member of a minority community who tried to protect the body of Dr Shah Nawaz from a Muslim mob.”

A netizen by the name of Asad Malik posted, “Prem Kohli who tried to save the body of Dr. Shahnawaz from desecration, Masood Lohar who led the movement to lead the funeral prayer, Allama Abdul Momin Memon who led the funeral prayer today are the Sindhis who make humanity proud.”

Mehar Baloch posted a note of appreciation for the Hindu driver.

Dr Shah Nawaz Kunbhar from Umerkot in Sindh was fatally shot by police in an alleged extra-judicial killing in Mirpurkhas, a day after he was arrested on allegations of blasphemy.

Later, the body was handed over to the family but an angry extremist mob followed them and eventually burnt the body. Since then, Sindhis have struck back at extremist elements, holding a massive funeral for the doctor and singing Sindhi folk songs at his grave which is now covered by ajraks, the traditional cloth that represents the province.