In a shocking turn of events, gunshots were reportedly fired outside the Vancouver residence of famous Punjabi singer and rapper AP Dhillon, weeks after he released a high-profile music video with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. India media reports say that imprisoned gangster Lawrence Biishnoi and outlaw Rohit Godhra have accepted responsibility for the incident.
An alleged threat made rounds on social media claiming that on the night of September 1, the gang carried out shootings at Victoria Island and Woodbridge, Toronto. The gangs warned the singer to “stay within his limits, or he will meet a “dog’s death.”
The incident is similar is to what happened on April 14, when gunshots were fired outside actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai residence in Bandra. Later, gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother Anmol claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Indian media reports that the authorities in Canada have initiated an investigation to determine the authenticity of the post. In response to the attack, AP Dhillon wrote on Instagram, “I’m safe, my people are safe. Thank you to everyone who reached out. Your support means everything.”
In November, Bishnoi had taken responsibility for an alleged gunshot at Indian Punjabi singer and musician Gippy Grewal’s home last year in Vancouver’s White Rock neighborhood.
Global superstar Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey have welcomed their first baby, and they can’t be any happier. The proud parents shared news of the arrival of their little bundle of joy, Jack Blues Bieber, on August 23. The news was shared by Justin himself on his Instagram account on 23 August, Friday 2024.
Justin Bieber posted a picture of his baby’s feet on Instagram. He captioned it:
“WELCOME HOME
JACK BLUES BIEBER “
The blues is a category of music. So we are guessing their son has been named for the music, not the colour.
When the couple announced they were expecting the baby for the first time on May 09, 2024, they did so through quite a sweet video and pictures from their vows renewal ceremony. Hailey has been updating her fans on her pregnancy journey on social media.
Back in 2018, Justin Bieber married Hailey Baldwin in a courthouse ceremony and the next year, they tied the knot in front of family and friends.
Ambassadors from Western countries including the United States will skip a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki after Israel was snubbed, officials said Wednesday.
Nagasaki’s mayor last week said that Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to Friday’s event in the southern Japanese city because of the risk of possible protests over the Gaza conflict.
The US and British embassies said on Tuesday that their ambassadors would not take part as a result, and that their countries would be represented by lower-ranking diplomats.
Media reports said that Australia, Italy, Canada and the European Union, who together with the US, Britain and Germany signed a strongly worded joint letter to Nagasaki’s mayor last month, would follow suit.
US ambassador Rahm Emanuel will not attend “after the mayor of Nagasaki politicised the event by not inviting the Israeli ambassador”, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.
Instead Emanuel, 64, who was ex-president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, will go to a separate event at a temple in Tokyo, the spokesperson said.
The British embassy said that ambassador Julia Longbottom would also not be in Nagasaki, saying that not inviting Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony.”
A spokesperson for the French embassy said that its number two would attend, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.
Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki had said last week that the decision not to invite Cohen was “not politically motivated” but based on a desire to “hold the ceremony in a peaceful and sombre atmosphere”.
In June Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Cohen, who was invited to and attended a memorial ceremony on Tuesday in Hiroshima, last week had said the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.
“As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families,” he wrote on social media platform X.
On Monday Cohen told US broadcaster CNN that the security concerns were “invented” and that he was “really surprised by (Suzuki) hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”
In their letter to Suzuki seen by AFP, the six Western envoys had warned that if Israel was excluded “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation at this event.”
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday declined to comment, saying invitations were “a decision for the organiser, Nagasaki City.”
A Nagasaki official in charge of the ceremony said it was “obviously better to have high-level individuals, like ambassadors themselves, taking part”.
“What is important is that representatives of the countries will attend the ceremony,” he told AFP.
Divorce can be a very emotional journey filled with unexpected challenges and personal reflections.
Recently, actress Hiba Ali appeared as a guest on ‘Fuchsia Magazine’. She talked about the emotional journey of her unplanned divorce, her struggle with depression, and the challenges of her child custody case.
“For me, it was always unexpected. I wanted to stay with my husband because he was the father of my son, and I hoped for a relationship built on understanding,” said Hiba Ali when discussing her divorce.
She explained that he was “a good person” but they struggled with understanding each other on basic issues.
“He was educated, and I considered myself sensible; we couldn’t afford to argue over small things every day,” she explained.
“We decided on divorce at a dinner table,” she revealed.
Hiba Ali said she was “shocked” after the custody case as her former husband believed that she had distanced their son from him while he was in Canada.
“Ultimately, it was our child’s choice whether to communicate with his father or not. We reached a compromise on the custody case outside of court because I didn’t want to give in easily. I told him he would only be wasting his money.”
However, she feels conflicted about the decision.
“Looking back, I wonder if marrying was a mistake or if I should not have divorced at all,” she said.
Hiba Ali is currently starring in the drama serials ‘Shiddat’ and ‘Jaan Nisar.’
The world is unprepared for the increasing ferocity of wildfires turbocharged by climate change, scientists say, as blazes from North America to Europe greet the northern hemisphere summer in the hottest year on record.
Wildfires have already burned swathes through Turkey, Canada, Greece and the United States early this season as extreme heatwaves push temperatures to scorching highs.
While extra resources have been poured into improving firefighting in recent years, experts said the same was not true for planning and preparing for such disasters.
“We are still actually catching up with the situation,” said Stefan Doerr, director of the Centre for Wildfire Research at the UK’s Swansea University.
Predicting how bad any one blaze will be — or where and when it will strike — can be challenging, with many factors including local weather conditions playing into calculations.
But overall, wildfires are getting larger and burning more severely, said Doerr, who co-authored a recent paper examining the frequency and intensity of such extreme events.
A separate study published in June found the frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires appeared to have doubled over the past 20 years.
By the end of the century, the number of extreme wildfires around the globe is tipped to rise 50 percent, according to a 2022 report by the UN Environment Programme.
Doerr said humanity had not yet faced up to this reality.
“We’re clearly not well enough prepared for the situation that we’re facing now,” he said.
Climate change is a major driver, though other factors such as land use and the location of housing developments play a big part.
Fires do not respect borders so responses have evolved between governments to jointly confront these disasters, said Jesus San-Miguel, an expert for the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
The EU has a strong model of resource sharing, and even countries outside the bloc along the Mediterranean have benefited from firefighting equipment or financial help in times of need, San-Miguel said.
But as wildfires become increasingly extreme, firefighting simply won’t be a fix.
“We get feedback from our colleagues in civil protection who say, ‘We cannot fight the fires. The water evaporates before it reaches the ground,’” San-Miguel said.
Wildfires have already burned swathes through Turkey as extreme heatwaves push temperatures to scorching highsMahmut BOZARSLAN
“Prevention is something we need to work on more,” he added.
Controlled burns, grazing livestock, or mechanised vegetation removal are all effective ways to limit the amount of burnable fuel covering the forest floor, said Rory Hadden from the University of Edinburgh.
Campfire bans and establishing roads as firebreaks can all be effective in reducing starts and minimising spread, said Hadden, an expert on fire safety and engineering.
But such efforts require funding and planning from governments that may have other priorities and cash-strapped budgets, and the return is not always immediately evident.
“Whatever method or technique you’re using to manage a landscape… the result of that investment is nothing happens, so it’s a very weird psychological thing. The success is: well, nothing happened,” said Hadden.
Local organisations and residents often take the lead in removing vegetation in the area immediately around their homes and communities.
But not everyone is prepared to accept their neighbourhood might be at risk.
‘People don’t think that it will happen to them, but it eventually will,’ fire expert Jesus San-Miguel saidETIENNE TORBEY
“People don’t think that it will happen to them, but it eventually will,” San-Miguel said, pointing to historically cold or wet climates like the US Pacific Northwest that have witnessed major fires in recent years.
Canada has adapted to a new normal of high latitude wildfires, while some countries in Scandinavia are preparing for ever-greater fire risk.
But how best to address the threat remains an open question, said Guillermo Rein from Imperial College London, even in places where fire has long been part of the landscape.
Even in locations freshly scarred by fire, the clearest lessons are sometimes not carried forward.
“People have very short memories for wildfires,” said Rein, a fire science expert.
In July 2022, London witnessed its worst single day of wildfires since the bombings of World War II, yet by year’s end only academics were still talking about how to best prepare for the future.
“While the wildfires are happening, everybody’s asking questions… When they disappear, within a year, people forget about it,” he said.
The federal Ministry of Interior has decided on Tuesday not to issue passports to Pakistanis who have requested asylum or are already living on asylum in foreign countries, citing security concerns.
The ministry sent a letter to relevant authorities asking them not to issue travel documents to asylum seekers.
According to the ministry’s notification, previously issued passports will be suspended and not renewed.
The Director General Passports issued the notification on Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s directions.
The Foreign Ministry and other relevant authorities have also received copies of the notification.
According to data issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), almost 40,618 Pakistanis applied for asylum in 2022.
Most Pakistani asylum seekers are currently based in Italy, Austria, and Canada.
Some of them are in the United States of America, as almost 1477 individuals fled away from Pakistan to the USA in 2022.
Pakistan was the fifth most represented country, with 5342 immigrants arriving in Europe; however, the number of Pakistani asylum seekers in Greece didn’t increase from 2022 to 2023.
Saheefa Jabbar, television actor and model, has starred in many popular Pakistani dramas. She’s also a successful model, endorsing several top clothing brands and collaborating with outstanding Pakistani fashion designers. Recently, Saheefa shared her experience of dealing with depression on Ahmed Ali Butt’s podcast. “I’ve been experiencing depression since 2013, but I didn’t realize it at first. I thought I was just reacting to unfavorable situations. Eventually, I noticed that my panic attacks persisted, even though I had a good life with loving parents, money, and a kind husband. That’s when I realized I was dealing with depression and severe anxiety.”
She also said, “I didn’t have much exposure and knowledge about depression because I belong to a middle-class family where most people just had their normal graduation degrees and no awareness of things like mental health,” Saheefa said, “A therapist should be concerned about the health of his/her patients.”
Saheefa revealed that despite receiving amazing support from her husband and brother, who take care of her, she still struggles with anxiety and depression, making healing a challenging journey for her. Reflecting on her difficult period with depression during her flight to Canada, Saheefa said, “I informed the flight crew about my condition as I had already consumed thirty pills, anticipating severe panic attacks. I was regularly taking antidepressants every few hours, and I have no recollection of my meeting with my husband. I recall being unstable for days, during which I isolated myself, and my husband provided constant care. My husband’s kindness has been instrumental in keeping me alive. His unwavering support in both Canada and Pakistan has been my lifeline.”
Saheefa added, “I’ll never do an item song. I won’t work with Khalil Ur Rehman Qamar. He might behave badly.”
A Canadian man who died in Cuba last month was mistakenly buried in a Russian town north of Moscow, and officials on Friday were scrambling to repatriate his body.
A government source who was not authorized to speak on the matter told AFP it had been a challenge to determine what had happened to the body of Faraj Allah Jarjour.
Efforts were now being made to bring his body back to Canada, the official said, after it was found that two bodies had been switched in Cuba before being sent to the wrong countries.
Jarjour, originally from Syria, was vacationing in Varadero, Cuba, when he died suddenly during a swim in the ocean in late March.
His remains were believed to have been sent to Canada, but mortuary technicians in Quebec tasked with preparing the body for burial discovered the man in the coffin looked nothing like a photograph his family provided.
The cadaver, public broadcaster CBC reported, had a full head of hair, tattoos and looked 20 years younger.
Jarjour, who landed in Canada in 2016 after fleeing war in Syria, was 68 years old and had no hair.
Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez apologized to the family for the mix-up, describing it in a social media post as “an unfortunate incident.”
His Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly, said she “shares the utmost concern for the unimaginable situation his family faces.”
“They’re going to un-bury him and send him to Canada,” Jarjour’s daughter Miriam told CBC. “It’s not a good situation, but we don’t have a choice. It’s not in our control. We can only be patient.”
Canadian actor and dancer Nora Fatehi, known for her item song performances in Bollywood, recently stirred controversy on the microblogging platform X ,(formerly Twitter) by criticising feminism during an appearance on The Ranveer Show. Fatehi stated that feminism has “negatively impacted society,” expressing her preference for traditional gender roles where men provide and women nurture.
Nora’s baffling views continued when she alleged that feminism harms the family system by pushing for women’s freedom, while she believes a woman’s main role is to care for her family and home, another outrageous statement that she piped out without any evidence. She stressed that women can pursue their dreams within their boundaries.
“Feminism initially aimed to secure women’s basic rights, like education for girls. However, when it went against the natural order, it became harmful to society,” she said. Then she stressed that she believes in equality between men and women, but acknowledges their different roles in society.
We would like Nora to get educated about feminism before spreading harmful tropes in countries where violence against women is rampant.
Ottawa, Canada – Canada for the first time is planning to curb the number of temporary foreign workers it welcomes, officials announced Thursday, after years of lofty immigration levels.
Ottawa is proposing to reduce the number of temporary residents to five percent of the population over the next three years, down from the current 6.2 percent (2.5 million people).
That target will be firmed up after consultations with Canada’s provinces, some of which have been pushing back on large migrant inflows amid a housing crunch and soaring demands for services.
Restrictions on temporary foreign worker permits will start on May 1.
This follows a recently announced cap on new permits for international students and visa requirements for some Mexican travellers.
“Canada has seen a sharp increase in the volume of temporary residents in recent years, from a rise of international students to more foreign workers filling job vacancies to those fleeing wars and natural disasters,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a news conference.
However, Canada’s labour market is now much tighter, with its population growth, fueled by massive immigration, outpacing job creation.
According to government data, job vacancies fell 3.6 percent to 678,500 in the last three months of 2023, marking the sixth straight quarterly decline from a record high of 983,600 reached in the second quarter of 2022.
“Changes are needed to make the system more efficient and more sustainable,” Miller said.
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault urged employers to consider hiring refugees before seeking to bring in temporary foreign workers.
He said businesses that are currently allowed to have temporary foreign workers make up to 30 percent of their workforce will see that proportion drop to 20 percent, except in the health care and construction sectors.
Canada’s immigration department, meanwhile, has been ordered by Miller to conduct a review of existing programs that bring in temporary labourers to better align them with labour needs and weed out abuses.
