French lawmakers have approved legislation seeking to prohibit social media access for children under the age of 15, a proposal strongly backed by President Emmanuel Macron as part of efforts to curb excessive screen use among minors.
The bill was passed by the National Assembly following a lengthy overnight debate, with 130 lawmakers voting in favour and 21 against between Monday and Tuesday. It will now be sent to the Senate for consideration before it can become law.
Macron welcomed the vote, calling it a “major step” in safeguarding children and teenagers, in a post on X.
The proposed law also includes a ban on mobile phones in high schools and would make France the second country, after Australia, to impose age-based restrictions on social media use. Australia introduced a similar ban for under-16s in December.
Concerns over the impact of screen time have intensified as social media usage has expanded, with experts warning of potential harm to child development and rising mental health issues.
“The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms,” Macron said in a video message broadcast on Saturday.
Authorities aim to implement the new rules for newly created accounts starting with the 2026 school year.
Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister and current leader of Macron’s Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would approve the bill by mid-February, allowing the ban to take effect on September 1.
Beyond mental health concerns, Attal said the measure would also counter “a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds.”
This month, France’s public health agency ANSES warned that platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram have multiple harmful effects on adolescents particularly girls – although it noted that social media is not the sole factor behind deteriorating mental health. Identified risks include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.
The legislation specifies that “access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15”, while exempting online encyclopedias and educational platforms.
The ban would depend on the introduction of an effective age-verification system, work on which is currently underway at the European level.
Criticism has come from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, with lawmaker Arnaud Saint-Martin describing the proposal as “a form of digital paternalism” and an “overly simplistic” response to the challenges posed by technology.
Macron has also expressed support for banning mobile phones in high schools. France previously prohibited mobile phone use in middle schools in 2018 for students aged 11 to 15.
Superstar Ayeza Khan is currently in Paris, according to her Instagram feed and posted that she gave a VIP treat to her ‘babies’, in the city of love.
She and her crew attended a Lady Gaga concert in Paris, seated close to the stage. Ayeza writes on her Instagram that the event made her heart drop.
“P.S. my heart dropped twice during the concert being so close to the stage, once when the first beat dropped, and second when Lady Gaga looked at me!” she says, adding that, “Fun to be a fan girl sometime.”
She went on to appreciate her own fans, saying that, “Turns out I learned to appreciate my own fan girls and boys even more!!! I love u all for ur support! You are the reason I do what I do! Love you!” ending with wishing her fans a good night.
Ayeza also posted a series of pictures and videos of the concert, which was titled ‘The Mayhem Ball’, and fans have mixed reactions over her post.
Ayeza posted a picture of herself in a super cool goth look but some fans weren’t loving it.
While others defended Ayeza’s right to enjoy herself the way she sees fit.
A pig’s head, covered in blood, scrawled in blue ink with the name “Macron”, was discovered at the doorstep of the Javel mosque in the heart of Paris on September 09, leaving Muslims shaken and on alert.
The mosque, a couple of kilometres away from the Eiffel Tower, serves a diverse community of Muslims with Lebanese, Algerian, Iranian backgrounds, coming to pray.
“It’s the first time something like this has ever happened to us…They [worshipphers] were in a state of shock,” the mosque’s rector Najat Benali told a news outlet.
Javel mosque was not the only one to have been targeted, as severed pig heads have been found on the doorsteps of mosques across Paris and its suburbs, in what French authorities are investigating as an act of foreign interference.
Recently, at a news conference, Paris’s Police prefect Laurent Nunez said, “One cannot help but draw parallels with previous actions which have been proven to be acts of foreign interference.”
Two individuals driving a car with Serbian licence plates approached a farmer in the northern region of Normandy to buy “about 10” pig’s heads on the evening of September 8, Paris prosecutor’s office has said.
Later, CCTV footage shows them arriving in Paris’s Oberkampf neighbourhood. The vehicle then crossed the French border with Belgium after depositing the pigs’ heads in front of the nine mosques.
“The pig heads left in front of mosques in the Paris region were placed there by foreign nationals who immediately left the country, with the clear intention of causing unrest within the nation,” the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccauau stated that the aim is to “unsettle our fellow citizens”, ultimately raising questions about the country they live in, about their safety, and then, creating divisions between communities.
Since late 2023, prosecutors have identified nine acts of foreign interference across the French capital, often, but not always, with the intent of inciting religious hatred.
Ali Akbar, a 72-year-old newspaper vendor from Rawalpindi, has been awarded the “Légion d’Honneur”, France’s highest civilian award. The award was presented to him by President Emmanuel Macron during a ceremony at the Élysée Palace. Akbar, who holds a French residence permit, hopes this recognition will support his long-delayed application for French citizenship.
For over fifty years, Akbar has been a familiar presence in the St.-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris. Recognised not only for selling newspapers but also for his signature cry of “Ça y est!”, his voice has echoed through cobbled streets as he made his daily rounds across cafés and boutiques.
Born in 1953 into a low-income household in Pakistan, Akbar left school at the age of 12 and took on a series of jobs before deciding to pursue a better future abroad.
In 1973, he arrived in Paris after a long journey that took him through Kabul, Tehran, and Athens.
He initially worked in restaurants and lived in difficult, often unstable conditions.
In 1974, he switched to selling newspapers on the street after observing an Argentine student doing the same. He began with satirical magazines such as “Charlie Hebdo” and “Hara-Kiri”, and later moved to major French dailies like “Le Monde” and “Les Echos”. The work provided modest earnings but gave him a sense of independence and connection to the city.
Akbar is known for using humour to engage passersby, sometimes inventing headlines to catch attention. Over the years, his clientele has included artists, psychotherapists, and fashion designers. He is a regular face at cafés like Flore, Lipp, and Fleurus, where he has built close relationships with customers and staff.
His daily path, which runs from noon to midnight, provides him with a modest living. On average, he earns about $70 each day. Despite being older now, he continues to work without a pension and seldom takes time off.
His motivation, he says, was shaped by his childhood in Rawalpindi, where he once lived in a cramped room with four siblings and relied on leftovers for food. His goal was always to provide his mother with a better life, which he eventually achieved by buying her a home with a garden.
President Emmanuel Macron has said that France would formally recognise Palestinian statehood during a United Nations (UN) meeting in September, going on to become the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.
The announcement comes as at least 142 countries recognise or plan to recognise Palestinian statehood since Israel increased bombardments under the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza nearly two years ago.
Macron’s announcement drew immediate anger from Israel and the United States (US) who continue to strongly oppose the decisions.
While the US has France’s announcement a “reckless decision that only serves Hamas’ propaganda”, Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu said it “rewarded terror” and posed an existential threat to Israel.
“It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X, alluding to Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023.
Netanyahu said the decision “risked creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became”, which would be “a launch pad to annihilate Israel – not to live in peace beside it”.
Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh welcomed the move, saying it “reflected France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”.
Hamas hailed Macron’s pledge as a “positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to oppressed Palestinian people and supporting their legitimate right to self-determination”.
“We call on all countries of the world – especially European nations and those that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine – to follow France’s lead,” it added.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the humanitarian situation in Gaza had become “unsustainable” and urged Israel to change course. He said the conflict had reached a stage where “people were dying of hunger, and that was indefensible”. Starmer repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, saying it could “open the path towards recognising a Palestinian state” and stressed that Palestinians had an “inalienable right” to statehood.
He confirmed he would hold talks with France and Germany to discuss “stopping the killing and getting food to people who desperately need it”. The UK, along with 27 other countries, recently signed a statement urging Israel to lift restrictions on aid deliveries, warning that its current policy “deprives Gazans of human dignity”.
International concern is growing about the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.
Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for Gaza’s deepening hunger crisis, which the World Health Organization has called “man-made” and France blamed on an Israeli blockade.
Macron said the urgent priority today was to end the war in Gaza and rescue the civilian population.
“We must finally build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability and enable it, by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East,” he wrote on social media.
On the streets of the occupied West Bank, Palestinians told AFP that they hoped other countries would now follow suit.
Macron said he intended to make the announcement at the UN General Assembly in September.
It merits a mention that Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia all announced recognition following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, along with several other non-European countries. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose country already recognises Palestinian statehood, welcomed Macron’s announcement.
“Together, we must protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two-state solution is the only solution,” the Socialist leader, an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, wrote on X.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry hailed Macron’s announcement as “historic” and urged other countries to follow suit.
Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Harris in a post on X called France’s move “the only lasting basis for peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has so far killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
As tributes for film legend Alain Delon poured in from around the globe following his death at 88, France was preparing on Monday its farewell to one of its greatest stars.
No national tribute has been planned, as Delon had made it clear he did not want one. He said he wanted to be buried near his dogs on his property in Douchy in central France where he died.He had already started sounding out the local authorities there, Christophe Hurault, the sub-prefect of Loiret, told AFP. The prefecture “had given its agreement in principle”.His three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, having squabbled bitterly for months over his medical treatment, spoke in a unified voice Sunday when they announced their father’s death.Now they have to manage the funeral of the screen icon, deciding whether to limit it to close family or extend it to the cinema world.Delon, naturally, dominated the front pages of France’s newspapers Monday, many of them featuring full-page portraits of the actor in his prime.”The Last Samurai”, wrote Le Figaro for its front-page headline, a reference to one of his most famous roles, as the enigmatic assassin in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 thriller “Le Samourai”.
– End of an era –
Delon’s performances in some of the greatest films of the 1960s and 70s were widely praised, his charisma on screen impossible to ignore.He was one of the last living legends of a golden era for French cinema in the 1960s.Fellow 60s star Brigitte Bardot, 89, told AFP Delon “leaves a huge void that nothing, nobody, can fill”.French President Emmanuel Macron called him a “French monument” who “played legendary roles and made the world dream”.His death was covered by newspapers around the world, with the New York Times, Washington Post and New York Post all publishing lengthy obituaries.The Washington Post described him as the “angel-faced tough guy of international cinema”, while The Hollywood Reporter said he was the “seductive star of European cinema”.”Mesmeric and beautiful, Alain Delon was one of cinema’s most mysterious stars,” The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw wrote.Germany’s Spiegel called him “Europe’s James Dean”, while Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the “aura of the handsome angel of death made him a legend”.Italy, where he spent much of his career, also gave extensive coverage to his passing. “There will never be another actor like Delon, unique and immortal”, wrote Il Corriere della Sera.La Stampa and La Repubblica bid “adieu to the legend of French cinema”.”For me, he was a legend,” 26-year-old moviegoer Victor Roussel told AFP before a showing of his 1963 film “The Leopard” at a Paris cinema Sunday.”Alain Delon really represents French cinema with a capital ‘C’”.
– Controversial views –
While he had legions of fans around the world, his personal life and political opinions divided opinion.Delon’s relationship with women caused controversy. His sons accused him of domestic violence, which Delon denied while admitting slapping women during quarrels.Delon also drew criticism for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, who was in favour of the death penalty and spoke against same-sex relationships.Feminists were also appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes Film Festival gave him in 2019.He lived his later years largely as a recluse, though his personal life kept him in the headlines.In 2023, his three children filed a complaint against his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.The siblings went on to wage a public battle in the media and the courts, arguing over his health, which worsened after a stroke in 2019.Delon lived out his final years in the small village of Douchy, surrounded by high walls, where he planned to be buried not far from his dogs.Outside the entrance to his home, dozens of fans placed flowers to pay their respects.”In our minds we believe that these icons are eternal,” said Marie Arnold, laying white flowers with her sister Michele.”It’s a part of our youth that is gone, it’s very sad.”
On a balmy evening in August 2022 at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, the largest athletics grounds in the United Kingdom, a packed crowd was following the drama unfolding in the men’s javelin competition.
Arshad Nadeem, the Pakistani athlete, was preparing for his fifth and penultimate throw.
Moments earlier, Grenada’s Anderson Peters, a two-time world champion, had delivered a mighty 88.64-metre (291ft) throw, propelling himself to the gold medal position and pushing Nadeem down to second place.
Nadeem took hold of his bright yellow javelin and strode towards the beginning of his run-up, holding up his arms and clapping at the crowd, which cheered back enthusiastically.
Until Peters’s throw, Nadeem had led the competition, already surpassing the 85-metre (279ft) mark three times with his longest throw at 88 metres (289ft).
As the crowd’s clapping and cheering picked up, Nadeem, his throwing arm lined with pink therapeutic tape, took long strides before launching the javelin with a low grunt.
Beneath Birmingham’s pink and blue dusk sky, the spear soared through the air for about five seconds, then landed beyond the 90-metre (295ft) mark. The crowd roared as Nadeem held up his arms triumphantly, a gentle smile on his face before hugging a smiling Peters.
Shortly after, with no other competitor matching Nadeem’s record in their sixth and final attempt, his victory became official.
Nadeem’s throw was a new event record and also Pakistan’s first gold medal in track and field in six decades. He also became the first South Asian and only the second Asian man to surpass the 90-metre mark in the javelin throw.
Nadeem, now 27, calls that throw the best of his career so far.
“I was in good rhythm,” he recalled on a June afternoon after training. “I was confident [the earlier throws] would enable me to win the gold.
“Usually, by the third or fourth throw in any event, you have an idea who will emerge on top. Then Peters sent his fifth throw and went past 88 metres. But I was not nervous. By the grace of God, despite pain in my right elbow, I somehow managed to pull off my personal best,” he recounted.
Nadeem is Pakistan’s biggest hope for a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which began on July 26.
The nine-time international medallist and four-time gold medallist came fifth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In Paris, he hopes to secure the country’s first medal in 32 years after it won bronze in field hockey at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
“I feel strong and fit,” Nadeem said, “and quite hopeful of a strong performance in Paris.”
A month before the games were scheduled to start, Nadeem arrived shortly after 8am at the University of the Punjab gymnasium in Lahore for a day’s training.
Wearing an olive green T-shirt and black pants, the broad-chested, 1.92m-tall (6ft-3-inch-tall) athlete began his routine by stretching in the sparse room.
On a day when the temperature would reach 41 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit), the gym was stiflingly hot without air conditioning, and four fans did little to ease the heat.
Nadeem’s coach, Salman Iqbal Butt, 66, himself a former national-level discus thrower, led the training.
The coach, a stout man with a gentle demeanour, has worked with Nadeem for the past four years, helping him win two gold medals and one silver.
Butt, a two-time silver medallist in the South Asian Games in 1989 and 1991, remarked that things were better in the decades he competed because there was more institutional support and resources for athletes.
There was a strong grassroots network within schools, the coach explained, which helped identify young athletes, provide them with opportunities to explore various sports, compete and progress to the national level. Until the early 2000s, Pakistan would send a squad of about 30 members to compete in the Olympics. In Paris, it is sending seven.
Nadeem added weight plates to a barbell. As he lifted it under his coach’s watchful gaze, Nadeem kept his eyes focused ahead while beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
“Last week, Arshad felt some pain in his right knee, so we are taking it lightly for the next few days where he will just focus on mobility and weights, but no running or throwing,” Butt said.
He added that they needed to look after Nadeem’s fragile knees and elbows – a common concern for javelin throwers, given the stop-start motion of the run-up and the strain of repeated throwing. In the past two years, Nadeem has had multiple surgeries, most recently in February this year.
While Nadeem said his body heals quickly, he was mindful not to push himself too much and drank water frequently. He also avoids the hottest hours by training for three hours in the morning and three in the evening.
But on practice throwing days, there was no choice but to train outdoors under the blazing sun. Still, Nadeem said he’s used to the conditions.
A video in May on Nadeem’s Instagram profile showed him throwing in 45C (113F) weather. “45°C fuels my passion for success,” he wrote.
Nadeem was born on January 2, 1997, in a small village near the city of Mian Channu in southern Punjab state, about 300km (186 miles) southwest of the megacity of Lahore.
The third of seven siblings, Nadeem grew up in a household that struggled to make ends meet. His father, Muhammad Ashraf, a retired construction worker, was the sole breadwinner.
Nadeem’s older brother Shahid Azeem, 32, said their family would get to eat meat only once a year, during Eid al-Adha.
“It would be a lucky day for the family if we ate anything more than lentils or vegetables,” Shahid told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.
As a child, Nadeem towered over his classmates. By the time he was 14, he was almost 6ft (183cm) tall. It was a “gift”, Shahid said, from their father, who is also more than six feet tall.
Nadeem saw Shahid compete regionally in track and field events and became interested in sports, diving into football, hockey, badminton, kabaddi – a 900-year-old contact sport that originated in South Asia – and cricket, Pakistan’s most popular sport.
Cricket was his first love. “I used to be a very good bowler and would participate in a lot of tournaments,” Nadeem said.
“He was famous in the village for his bowling,” Shahid recalled. “He could single-handedly get teams out. If he’d have continued to play, I am sure he could have become as fast as Shoaib Akhtar,” he said, comparing Nadeem to one of Pakistan’s fastest bowlers, who retired in 2011.
But Nadeem’s father and two older brothers discouraged him from pursuing cricket.
“My father never liked cricket. He’d say, ‘You do all the hard work to win the match, but your teammates leave it all on you but don’t deliver. You should do something else,’” Nadeem recalled.
Shahid also told a teenage Nadeem that it would be difficult to break through the ranks of a popular sport like cricket. So with his brother’s encouragement, Nadeem, who was quick and well-built, started to compete in school athletics events, including sprints, long jump, triple jump, discus throwing and javelin.
Then in 2011, Rasheed Ahmed Saqi, a hotelier and resident of Mian Channu who scouts and invests in new athletic talent, saw Nadeem compete.
“I was a member of the Punjab Athletic Federation, and there was a local competition I organised where I saw this lanky kid who made quite an impression in track and field games, especially javelin and shot put. I noticed he was strong. He ran well. So I thought, maybe if I can help train him, he could make a difference,” said the 69-year-old, who had competed on the provincial level in track and field, including in javelin throw, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Two weeks after the event, Saqi, was sitting in a hotel he owns in Mian Channu when Ashraf brought his son to his office. “Arshad is your son and your responsibility from today,” Ashraf told him.
“And from that day onwards, I have taken him under my wings,” said Saqi, who became Nadeem’s first coach and mentor.
Around this time, Shahid started working as a police officer while his eldest brother joined the army.
They urged Nadeem to pursue javelin throwing. “He has always been a shy, quiet person who often keeps to himself. We both knew that he liked the sport but never spoke about it publicly,” Shadid said. “We told him, ‘Do not worry about money. We have jobs. We can support our home.’”
With Pakistan’s sports structure revolving around public sector organisations that offer employment opportunities to talented athletes, Nadeem’s athletic exploits generated attention locally, and various departments sought him out a few years later.
In 2015, an army representative came calling. “I flat out refused them,” Saqi recalled. “I told him, ‘Your training will ruin my athlete.’” He was worried about Nadeem doing both army and sports training.
“He is basically working extra hard without any recovery period. You cannot force or flog a player and say working for long hours is part of training,” Saqi explained.
Saqi, who trained Nadeem until 2015, still maintains close ties with the athlete.
Saqi believes the most important factor behind Nadeem’s success is his humility and said he has not been “tainted” by fame or money.
“He displays no arrogance or pride. When he comes to Mian Channu to see me, he makes sure he walks behind me. He ensures he opens the doors for me and waits till I sit,” Saqi said.
Recalling an incident from a few years ago, the hotel owner said Nadeem was at a training camp in Islamabad when Saqi was taken to the hospital for a heart complication.
“Somehow, he found out, and he left the camp to come and see me within a day’s notice. I had to scold him, despite my health, telling him to go back to training,” Saqi recalled with a chuckle.
Nadeem refers to Saqi as his “spiritual father”. A decade ago, when he did not even know specific spikes for javelin throwers existed, let alone owned them, it was Saqi who bought him his first pair.
The athlete also said it was thanks to Saqi that he secured employment at the sports department of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), a government-owned public utility that pays him a monthly retainer.
“WAPDA was holding trials for its sports department when Saqi sahib arranged for my entry there, and I managed to throw 56 metres [184ft] there, which made everyone pay attention,” Nadeem recalled.
Within two months of joining WAPDA, Nadeem, then 18, became Pakistan’s 2015 national champion.
“We were down to the sixth and the last throw, and by that time, I was fifth in the competition with an army athlete having thrown 69 metres [226ft]. Everybody thought that the competition was over. But somehow, I managed to push myself and threw a 70-metre [300ft] throw, which got me the gold medal,” Nadeem recounted with a brief, shy smile.
Nadeem was then selected for the 2016 South Asian Games in India, his first international competition.
The sporting event, which took place in Guwahati, India, was also the first time Nadeem competed against the then-emerging Indian star Neeraj Chopra.
Nadeem, who went into the tournament with a niggle in his throwing elbow, still managed a throw of 78.33 metres (257ft), winning his first international medal, a bronze, with Chopra securing gold.
“The previous Pakistani record lasted for nearly two decades, so I was very pleased with my effort,” Nadeem reflected.
Spears were once hurled as weapons for hunting and fighting. As a sport, it was one of the original disciplines at the ancient Olympic Games in Greece.
In its modern iteration, the sport has been part of the games since the 1908 London Olympics.
Over the decades, the spear has gone through various changes.
The most important change to the javelin, however, was made in 1986 after the feats of East German athlete Uwe Hohn, who in 1984 threw the spear an astonishing distance of 104.8m [343.8ft], raising safety concerns. The javelin at that time would also fall flat instead of on its tip, often resulting in arguments over the validity of the throw.
Consequently, the spear was redesigned to bring the centre of gravity 3cm (1.2 inches) forward, ensuring the javelin landed tip first and also reducing the flight range.
Only 24 male athletes have thrown beyond the 90-metre mark, some multiple times. Czech athlete Jan Zelezny, considered the greatest javelin athlete of all time, retains the world record with a throw of 98.48 metres (323ft) in 1996 using the redesigned spear.
Zelezny went on to launch more than 30 throws that crossed the 90-metre mark.
While Nadeem has managed one throw of more than 90 metres in his career, he remains quietly confident in his abilities and talent.
“People have seen me throw long distances, and I have also heard chatter that I can go close to 100 metres [328ft]. But I don’t want to appear too ambitious. If I have crossed 90 once, my next attempt is to touch 92,” he explained.
“From the beginning, I just tell myself to keep a simple approach, make small changes and hope for the best, and it has worked out for me.”
On July 7, Nadeem participated in the Diamond League competition in Paris, his first international event since his surgery in February.
Wearing a white vest emblazoned with “Nadeem”, the Pakistani athlete managed a best throw of 84.21 metres (276ft) on his fifth attempt, which landed him in fourth position.
Grimacing after every throw, it was evident that Nadeem was easing his way into a rhythm, something his coach confirmed later.
“The first and foremost aim was to see how well the rehabilitation has been, and now we can work on making small tweaks in training and just fine-tuning,” Butt said.
Nadeem credits his coach with helping his quick recovery.
“In the world of elite athletics, it all comes down to your support system and who is looking out for you. In Pakistan, even though our overall structure might not be the best, coaches like Butt sahib really make a difference,” he said.
Nadeem and Butt said the Pakistani authorities do what they can, including helping finance medical trips to the United Kingdom. But when he travels for competitions, Nadeem pays for part of the trip while the Athletics Federation of Pakistan and the Pakistan Sports Board finance the rest. Nadeem earns a living from his three sponsors, a clothing, shoe and car manufacturer in Pakistan, as well as his modest WAPDA stipend.
In August 2023, Nadeem won silver at the World Athletic Championships in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, guaranteeing him a place on the Paris Olympic squad. He also won $35,000 in prize money, but competitions such as the Olympics, Asian Games and Islamic Games do not award cash prizes. Instead, it is at the discretion of the home country or sports authorities to give such prizes.
However, from the 2024 Olympics, gold medal winners will receive a $50,000 reward, and from the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, prize money will also be awarded to silver and bronze medal winners.
While training, Nadeem spends time away from his wife, two sons and a daughter, who live in Mian Channu, and stays in the Punjab sports board’s hostel for athletes.
“I do not have many friends. I keep to myself, and besides training, I stay indoors. I just keep telling myself that I cannot go into a negative spiral and try to look at the positives,” he said.
Butt chimed in, saying Nadeem’s mental strength is his “superpower”, adding that in his decades of coaching, he has not met another athlete with the same level of focus as Nadeem, who bows his head as he hears his coach’s words.
“He is Zen-like. He is quiet. He is focused, and no matter the setback, he does not let it linger. This is one of the most incredible things about Nadeem, and you cannot really teach it either,” his coach said.
At the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26 in Paris, Nadeem carried the Pakistan flag along with swimmer Jehanara Nabi.
“This is something straight out of a dream to be able to carry your country’s flag at the Olympics and a huge honour. But this is not the only thing for me. My main objective is to see my country’s flag being raised and the anthem being played if I get the gold,” Nadeem told Al Jazeera about a week before the Olympics began.
Among his competitors will be India’s Chopra, a now 27-year-old who has won seven gold medals. When they competed against one another at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, people on social media fanned the flames of the traditional rivalry between the South Asian countries and criticised Nadeem for being distracted and not winning a medal while Chopra won gold.
But Nadeem speaks fondly of his rival from India.
“Neeraj and I are on very good terms. Whenever we are abroad in training or an event, we always talk to each other and stay in touch, but when it comes to competition, then you only think of yourself,” the athlete explained. “Look, India is our neighbour. People on both sides say a lot of things about each other’s country, but this is what sports teaches us – to be friendly and that we don’t have to focus on our differences.”
He continued: “I know I have great rivals like Chopra or Peters or others, but ultimately, I compete against myself.”
Arshad Nadeem made history by winning an Olympic gold medal for Pakistan after 29 years, after he pulled off an Olympic record breaking 92.9 meters throw.
In a highly tough competition, India’s Neeraj Chopra who was defending his gold medal from Tokyo 2020 threw his best of 89.45 meters for silver, while Grenada’s Anderson Peters took bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters.
The win has sent waves of happiness and pride across the country as celebrities and fans took to social media to congratulate Arshad on his historic performance.
Many celebrities shared stories on their Instagram to congratulate and appreciate the national hero.
Olympics 2024 are set to conclude with a bang, courtesy of Hollywood’s own daredevil, Tom Cruise. The Top Gun actor will perform a heart-stopping skydiving stunt to mark the end of the Games in Paris and hand over the torch to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympiad. Cruise attended the opening ceremony of the Games.
During the women’s swimming competition, Cruise said, “It’s awesome. Great stories, great athletes. It’s incredible what they have to do, the sense of accomplishment.”
Preliminary data from Comcast’s NBCUniversal shows that 28.6 million US viewers watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, making it the most watched summer Games opening night since London in 2012.
After being released from the military, Jin has been participating in a number of events, such as concerts, commercial deals, and even the 2024 Paris Olympics torch relay, but his most recent activity has fans buzzing with excitement.
The BTS member has announced the return of the beloved variety show Run BTS with a solo spin-off titled Run Jin. But the show ended as the cast members started working in the military, creating a Tuesday opening that fans were unable to fill.
Currently, the upcoming series, which debuted on the BTS YouTube channel on July 30, attempts to fill the gap left by the original show’s absence in terms of games and fun for ARMYs.
Run Jin will feature Jin participating in various activities, starting with a hiking trip to Hallasan, a volcanic mountain in South Korea. Run Jin is set to premiere on Tuesday, August 13.
