Faraz Saeed/Mariam Ellahi

LAHORE: As Pakistan grapples with devastating floods, health experts warn of increased risks to public health if preventive measures are not maintained.&nbsp;&nbsp;Since late June, heavier-than-usual monsoon rains have caused widespread flooding and landslides, impacting over 6 million people across the country, according to the United Nations.&nbsp;In Punjab, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority reported that over 4.7 million people have been affected, with more than 100 lives lost and thousands of homes, livestock, and crops destroyed.&nbsp;&nbsp;The floods have displaced 2.6 million people, leaving communities vulnerable to waterborne diseases.&nbsp;Health officials confirmed that the total number of patients treated in flood-affected areas has exceeded 900,000. Most cases involve respiratory issues, fever, skin allergies, diarrhea, and eye infections &mdash; conditions all related to flood contamination and poor living conditions.&nbsp;No danger of epidemicsDespite the surge in medical cases, authorities maintain that no major epidemic has been detected.&nbsp;&nbsp;Dr Moiz Mansoor, Additional Director at the Punjab DGHS office, told Pakistan TV Digital that up to 20,000 health camps were established at the height of the floods. As waters recede, around 465 health camps &mdash; including mobile clinics and field hospitals &mdash; remain operational.&nbsp;&ldquo;At the peak, more than 51,000 patients were screened in a single day,&rdquo; Dr Moiz said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;We are actively testing for malaria, diarrhea, eye diseases, and snake bites. While there has been a 2% to 3% increase in overall disease incidence, there is no evidence of an outbreak.&rdquo;&nbsp;However, public health experts remain cautious. Dr Masood Sheikh, a senior health specialist, noted that Pakistan is among the most frequently flood-affected countries in the world.&nbsp;&ldquo;The consequences can be immediate, in the form of fatalities, or longer-term through the spread of infectious diseases,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;The actual health toll is probably underestimated due to the scale of displacement and the difficulties in gathering data, he added.&nbsp;Dr Sheikh warned that Punjab could see a rapid spread of preventable diseases like polio, measles, leishmaniasis, HIV, and COVID-19 if vaccination efforts are not strengthened.&nbsp;&nbsp;Many flood victims are already suffering from skin and waterborne infections caused by prolonged exposure to contaminated water, he added.&nbsp;Health services overwhelmedWhile provincial authorities focus on rescue efforts and setting up medical camps, reports from the field indicate that health services are overwhelmed.&nbsp;&nbsp;Doctors and aid workers describe clinics swamped with patients, shortages of essential medicines, and long waits for treatment. In some camps, anti-malarial drugs and rabies vaccines have reportedly run out, leaving residents at greater risk.&nbsp;The World Health Organization has warned of &ldquo;grave risks&rdquo; of epidemic outbreaks, urging immediate improvements in clean water, sanitation, and consistent medical supplies. Aid groups echo these concerns, pointing to unsanitary conditions in camps and stagnant floodwater breeding mosquitoes, which raises the threat of cholera, dysentery, and dengue.

Climate & Environment

Floods have displaced 2.6 million people, leaving communities vulnerable to waterborne diseases; PDMA reports over 4.7 million people have been affected, with more than 100 lives lost and thousands of homes, livestock, and crops destroyed. 





Punjab floods: Over 900,000 treated as authorities downplay outbreak fears

CARACAS: US President Donald Trump said Sunday his administration was working well with Venezuela&#39;s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez &mdash; and that he would be open to meeting with her. Trump&#39;s upbeat remarks came just over a week after Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was seized in a US special forces raid and brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Trump has said that the United States now has de facto control of Venezuela, as it enforces a naval blockade of the South American nation&#39;s vital oil exports. Rodriguez, despite being a close Maduro ally, has indicated a willingness to work with the United States, saying she is open to cooperating on Trump&#39;s demands for access to Venezuelan oil. Her government has also vowed to release political prisoners and begin talks on reestablishing diplomatic ties with Washington. US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening Washington&#39;s embassy there. &quot;Venezuela is really working out well. We&#39;re working along really well with the leadership,&quot; Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One. Asked if he planned to meet with Rodriguez, Trump said: &quot;At some point I&#39;ll be.&quot; He also said he expected to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Tuesday or Wednesday. Many were stunned when Trump dismissed the possibility of Machado serving as Venezuela&#39;s interim leader following the toppling of Maduro, and instead accepted Rodriguez&#39;s ascent. Machado was given the Nobel Peace Prize last year and dedicated it to Trump, though he has made no secret of his frustration at being passed over for the award. Political prisonersThe Venezuelan government began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro on Thursday, saying a &quot;large&quot; number would be released &mdash; but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free so far, including several prominent opposition figures. Relatives have gathered outside prisons believed to be holding political detainees, to await their loved ones&#39; release, sometimes even camping outside. Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners currently being held in Venezuela. &quot;Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!&quot; Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform. &quot;I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.&quot; Meanwhile, a detained police officer accused of &quot;treason&quot; against Venezuela died in state custody after a stroke and heart attack, the state prosecution service confirmed Sunday. Opposition groups said the 52-year-old man, Edison Jose Torres Fernandez, had shared messages critical of Maduro&#39;s government. &quot;We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death,&quot; Justice First, part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X. Late Saturday, families held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives. Prisoners include Freddy Superlano, a close ally of Machado who was jailed after challenging Maduro&#39;s widely contested reelection in 2024. &quot;He is alive &mdash; that was what I was most afraid about,&quot; Superlano&#39;s wife, Aurora Silva, told reporters. &quot;He is standing strong, and I am sure he is going to come out soon.&quot; Maduro&#39;s supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday, but the demonstrations were far smaller than his camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent. Oil Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela, but was met with a cautious reception. ExxonMobil&#39;s chief executive, Darren Woods, notably dismissed the country as &quot;uninvestable&quot; without sweeping reforms &mdash; earning a rebuke from Trump. &quot;I didn&#39;t like Exxon&#39;s response. You know, we have so many that want it, I&#39;d probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn&#39;t like their response. They&#39;re playing too cute,&quot; Trump said Sunday. Experts say Venezuela&#39;s oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.

Americas

US president also expected to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Tuesday or Wednesday; Trump has said that the US now has de facto control of Venezuela, as it enforces a naval blockade of the South American nation's vital oil exports.

Trump says working well with Venezuela's new leaders, open to meeting

SYDNEY: Tech giant Meta urged Australia on Monday to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law. Australia has required big platforms, including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year. Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take &quot;reasonable steps&quot; to comply. Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg&#39;s Meta said it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11. The company said it was committed to complying with the law. &quot;That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivizing all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age-appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans,&quot; it said in a statement. Meta renewed an earlier call for app stores to be required to verify people&#39;s ages and get parental approval before under-16s can download an app. This was the only way to avoid a &quot;whack-a-mole&quot; race to stop teens migrating to new apps to avoid the ban, the company said. Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet. Initial impacts of the legislation &quot;suggest it is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians,&quot; it argued. While raising concerns over the lack of an industry standard for determining age online, Meta said its compliance with the Australian law would be a &quot;multilayered process.&quot; Since the ban, the California-based firm said it had helped found the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit group that has launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys to be used with participating platforms.

Australasia

Australia has required big platforms, including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year; companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply.

Meta urges Australia to change teen social media ban

Asfandyar Yahya

It&rsquo;s not English. It&rsquo;s not nonsense. It&rsquo;s everywhere. Lorem Ipsum has outlived empires, printing presses, and software updates, and somehow ended up on your Canva template.In this episode, we explore the history behind the internet&rsquo;s favorite filler text.

Tell Me Why

Tell Me Why: Lorem Ipsum matters

SYDNEY: Australia&#39;s leading Adelaide Festival is battling a slew of artist withdrawals and board resignations after disinviting a Palestinian-Australian author citing &quot;cultural sensitivities&quot; raised by the Bondi Beach shooting. Scores of artists have reportedly torn up their invitations, several board members &mdash; including the festival chair &mdash; have quit, and the blocked author&#39;s lawyers have demanded an explanation. Australia&#39;s premier annual cultural event, which lures artists from around the world, unleashed the storm last week when it told Randa Abdel-Fattah it did not &quot;wish to proceed&quot; with her appearance at its Writers&#39; Week. &quot;Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements, we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,&quot; it said in a statement. The festival board said it was &quot;shocked and saddened&quot; by the December 14 mass shooting at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people, and its decision to exclude Abdel-Fattah was not taken lightly. But the shunned author and academic said it was a &quot;blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism.&quot; It was a &quot;despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre,&quot; she said in a statement. Her legal representatives, Marque Lawyers, sent a letter to the festival on Sunday demanding that it identify statements by the author that justified excluding her. Marque Lawyers&#39; managing partner Michael Bradley said the festival had &quot;trampled&quot; on Abdel-Fattah&#39;s human rights, and the board would have to answer for it. Festival chair resigns Abdel-Fattah has faced criticism over some statements, including a post on X in October 2024 saying: &quot;The goal is decolonization and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.&quot; Local media said her exclusion had led more than 70 participants to withdraw from the festival, which runs from February 27 to March 15. They included author and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who posted a video on social media of himself tearing up his invitation. Three Adelaide Festival board members reportedly resigned their positions at an extraordinary meeting on Saturday. On Sunday, the festival chair, Tracey Whiting, announced she, too, had resigned with immediate effect. &quot;Recent decisions were bound by certain undertakings, and my resignation enables the Adelaide Festival, as an organization, to refresh its leadership and its approach to these circumstances,&quot; she said. South Australia&#39;s Premier Peter Malinauskas said he was legally prevented from directing the board&#39;s decisions. &quot;However, when asked for my opinion, I was happy to make it clear that the state government did not support the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the Adelaide Writers&#39; Week program,&quot; he told local media. The Adelaide Festival said it had &quot;temporarily unpublished&quot; the list of participants and events in Writers&#39; Week while it works through changes to its website.

Australia's premier annual cultural event unleashes storm after telling Randa Abdel-Fattah it does not "wish to proceed" with her appearance at its Writers' Week; scores of artists have torn up invitations, several board members have quit, and the blocked author's lawyers have demanded an explanation; shunned author and academic says it is a "blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism."





Arts festival faces exodus after dropping Palestinian Australian author

COPENHAGEN: Denmark&#39;s prime minister on Sunday said her country faces a &quot;decisive moment&quot; in its diplomatic battle with the United States over Greenland, after President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the Arctic territory. Ahead of meetings in Washington from Monday on, the global scramble for key raw materials, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that &quot;there is a conflict over Greenland.&quot; &quot;This is a decisive moment&quot; with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland&#39;s future, she added in a debate with other Danish political leaders. Frederiksen posted on Facebook that &quot;we are ready to defend our values &mdash; wherever it is necessary &nbsp;&mdash; also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in people&#39;s right to self-determination.&quot; Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump&#39;s latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned US &quot;threatening rhetoric&quot; after Trump repeated that Washington was &quot;going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.&quot; &quot;Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,&quot; he told a defense conference in Salen, where the US general in charge of NATO took part. Kristersson said a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland would be &quot;a violation of international law and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way.&quot; No &#39;immediate threat&#39; Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington discussions. Before meeting US counterpart Marco Rubio on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to address the &quot;strategic challenges of the Far North&quot;, according to a foreign ministry statement. &quot;Security in the Arctic is becoming more and more important,&quot; and &quot;is part of our common interest in NATO,&quot; he said at a joint news conference with Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir. &quot;If the American president is looking at what threats might come from Russian or Chinese ships or submarines in the region, we can of course find answers to that together,&quot; he added. But &quot;the future of Greenland must be decided by the people of Greenland&quot; and Denmark, he said. Asked about a possible strengthening of NATO&#39;s commitment in the Arctic, Wadephul said Germany was &quot;ready to assume greater responsibilities.&quot; Earlier Sunday, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said: &quot;We are strengthening security in the Arctic together, as NATO allies, and not against one another.&quot; He was speaking ahead of an international meeting on critical raw materials in Washington. European nations have scrambled to coordinate a response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action. On Tuesday, leaders of seven European countries, including France, Britain, Germany, and Italy, signed a letter saying it is &quot;only&quot; for Denmark and Greenland to decide the territory&#39;s future. Trump says controlling the island is crucial for US national security because of the rising Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic. NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Alexus Grynkewich told the Swedish conference that alliance members were discussing Greenland&#39;s status. While there was &quot;no immediate threat&quot; to NATO territory, the Arctic&#39;s strategic importance was fast growing, the US general added. Grynkewich said he would not comment on &quot;the political dimensions of recent rhetoric,&quot; but talks on Greenland were being held at the North Atlantic Council. &quot;Those dialogues continue in Brussels. They have been healthy dialogues from what I&#39;ve heard,&quot; the general said. A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark. Polls indicate that Greenland&#39;s population strongly opposes a US takeover. &quot;I don&#39;t think there&#39;s an immediate threat to NATO territory right now,&quot; Grynkewich told the conference. But he said Russian and Chinese vessels had been seen patrolling together on Russia&#39;s northern coast and near Alaska and Canada, working together to get greater access to the Arctic as ice recedes due to global warming.

Europe

PM Frederiksen says “we are ready to defend our values — wherever it is necessary  — also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples' right to self-determination"; Swedish PM condemns US "threatening rhetoric" after Trump repeats that Washington was "going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not."

Danish PM says Greenland showdown at 'decisive moment' after new Trump threats

LONDON: Demonstrators rallied in London, Paris and Istanbul on Sunday in support of protests in Iran that have been countered with a deadly crackdown by the country&#39;s security forces. London demonstrations, initially in front of the Iranian embassy and later in front of the British prime minister&#39;s residence, grew to several thousand as the day progressed. &quot;We want revolution, change the regime,&quot; Afsi, a 38-year-old Iranian, who declined to give her last name, told AFP at the rally in front of Downing Street. Afsi has lived in London for seven years, and has not been able to contact her family in Iran because of an internet blackout imposed by authorities since Thursday. &ldquo;It&#39;s so frustrating, but it&#39;s not the first time,&quot; he said. &quot;This time, we have hope ... we feel like we can do it (overthrow the government) this time.&quot; In Paris, more than 2,000 people waving Iran&#39;s flag from before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 demonstrated, to chants of &quot;No to the terrorist Islamic Republic.&quot; Police did not allow them to approach the Iranian embassy. &quot;Close the mullahs&#39; embassy, the terrorist factory,&quot; some demonstrators yelled. A 20-year-old Iranian student living in Paris, who gave his first name as Arya, said: &quot;In Iran, the people are rising up in the streets, and we Iranians outside Iran are here to show we are with them, and they are not alone.&quot; He said he was waiting to hear what the son of Iran&#39;s last shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, &quot;will tell us to do.&quot; Pahlavi has emerged as a potential figurehead for government opponents. The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have lasted two weeks and become a movement against the theocratic system in place since the 1979 revolution. Iranian authorities have called the protesters &quot;rioters&quot; who are backed by the United States and Israel. In Istanbul, demonstrators voicing support for the Iranian protesters gathered in steady rain. Police cordoned off the area outside the Iranian consulate and the crowd was kept away from the mission. &quot;It&#39;s been 72 hours since we had any news from the country, from our families. No internet or television, we can&#39;t reach Iran anymore,&quot; said Nina, a young Iranian living in Turkey who had the Iranian flag and red tears painted on her face. &quot;The regime kills at random &mdash; whether families are on foot or in a car, whether there are children. It spares no one,&quot; she added. The crackdown by Iran&#39;s authorities has resulted in at least 192 deaths, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it had received &quot;credible&quot; accounts of &quot;hundreds of protesters&quot; killed across Iran since the internet clampdown started. The leaders of Britain, France, and Germany on Friday condemned the &quot;killing of protestors&quot; in Iran, while US President Donald Trump said Saturday his country stood &quot;ready to help&quot; as Iranians protest. One of the demonstrators in London, Fahimeh Moradi, 52, said she was taking part &quot;to support the Iranian people who are killed and murdered by the Iran regime &mdash; we don&#39;t want the Islamic Republic of Iran, we hate them!&quot; She added, &quot;My son is there, and I don&#39;t know if he&#39;s alive or not. We just want this murderous regime to leave Iran, that&#39;s it!&quot;

Middle East

The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have lasted two weeks and become a movement against the theocratic system in place since the 1979 revolution; Iranian authorities have called the protesters "rioters" who are backed by the United States and Israel.

Demonstrators in London, Paris, Istanbul back Iran protests 

STOCKHOLM: Sweden will invest 15 billion kronor ($1.6 billion) on bolstering its air defenses, notably potential civilian targets, the government said Sunday, the latest European country to beef up military spending since Russia&#39;s invasion of Ukraine.&nbsp;The money will go to ground-based aerial defense systems, the government said, as Russia&#39;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the United States&#39; increasingly strained ties with NATO allies under US President Donald Trump prompt a European rush to rearm.&nbsp;&quot;Experience from Ukraine demonstrates the importance of a robust air defence,&quot; the Swedish government said.&nbsp;The announcement follows similar moves by countries, including Germany, where parliament approved $59 billion in new defence spending in December.&nbsp;The initial purchases under Sweden&#39;s new plan will be made in the first quarter of 2026, the government said.&nbsp;&quot;With this broad investment in air defence, we are protecting the whole of society, from our military units to urban areas and critical infrastructure,&quot; Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;It is a matter of people&#39;s lives, our freedom, and our ability to withstand attacks in all parts of the country.&quot;&nbsp;Sweden had announced in November it was spending around $366 million on IRIS-T surface-to-air short-range missiles to protect itself against missiles, drones, and combat aircraft.

Sweden will spend 15 billion kronor to strengthen its air defences, focusing on protecting civilians, cities, and critical infrastructure, with ground-based systems to be bought starting in early 2026.

Sweden to spend $1.6B to bolster air defenses

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a series of bilateral meetings with counterparts from Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and other member states on the sidelines of the 22nd Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, reaffirming Islamabad&rsquo;s commitment to regional cooperation and strengthened bilateral relations, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Sunday.&nbsp;The 22nd extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was convened in Jeddah to address developments concerning Israel&rsquo;s recognition of the Somaliland region and the situation in Palestine.&nbsp;The meeting adopted resolutions underscoring the importance of state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law.&nbsp;Dar attended the session, condemning Israel&rsquo;s recognition of Somaliland as &ldquo;illegal and unlawful,&rdquo; reaffirming Pakistan&rsquo;s support for Somalia&rsquo;s sovereignty and for an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, while also engaging counterparts from several OIC member states on the sidelines.&nbsp;According to an FO statement, Dar met Bangladesh&rsquo;s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Touhid Hossain, with both sides expressing satisfaction over the &ldquo;robustness of Pakistan&ndash;Bangladesh relations.&rdquo;&nbsp;The leaders discussed cooperation across a range of areas, including high-level exchanges, trade, and educational collaboration, and also exchanged views on regional and global developments.&nbsp;On the sidelines of the Jeddah moot, Dar separately met Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khereiji.&nbsp;The discussions focused on further strengthening the Pakistan&ndash;Saudi strategic partnership and reaffirmed close coordination within the OIC framework, with both sides emphasizing the importance of continued cooperation to promote &ldquo;peace, stability, and security in the region.&rdquo;&nbsp;With Azerbaijan, FM Dar met Deputy FM Yalchin Rafiyev, where both sides appreciated the frequent high-level exchanges, underscoring the commitment of the leadership of both countries to strengthening bilateral ties.&nbsp;&ldquo;Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, met with Dr. Abdulla Khaleel, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Maldives, on the sidelines of the 22nd OIC Extraordinary CFM in Jeddah,&rdquo; the FO said.&nbsp;Pakistan and the Maldives underscored their shared commitment to further strengthen bilateral ties, expressing satisfaction with the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries.&nbsp;In another engagement, Dar met his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty.&nbsp;&ldquo;On the sidelines of the 22nd Extraordinary OIC CFM in Jeddah, DPM/FM Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar met Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty,&rdquo; the FO statement said.&nbsp;During the meeting, Pakistan and Egypt reaffirmed their commitment to expanding cooperation across multiple domains and exchanged views on the situation in Gaza and broader regional developments, underscoring support for international law and the just cause of the Palestinian people, the FO added.

Foreign Affairs

On the sidelines of the 22nd OIC Extraordinary Session in Jeddah, Dar holds bilateral talks with Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Maldives, and Egypt, promoting regional cooperation.

Dar pushes ‘regional cooperation’ in talks with Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and others

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia suspended access to Elon Musk&#39;s chatbot Grok over AI-generated pornographic content, the country&#39;s tech regulator said on Sunday.&nbsp;The decision follows global backlash after it emerged that Grok&#39;s image creation feature allowed users to sexualize pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.&nbsp;On Saturday, Indonesia became the first country to deny all access to the tool, which has been restricted to paying subscribers elsewhere.&nbsp;The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement it had &quot;directed a temporary restriction on access to the Grok artificial intelligence for users in Malaysia&quot; with immediate effect.&nbsp;When an AFP reporter in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur fed Grok prompts on Sunday, there was no response.&nbsp;&quot;This action follows repeated misuse of Grok to generate obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive and non-consensual manipulated images,&quot; the regulator said.&nbsp;The statement cited &quot;content involving women and minors, despite prior regulatory engagement and formal notices&quot; issued to Musk&#39;s X Corp. and xAI startup which developed Grok.&nbsp;The AI tool is integrated into social media platform X.&nbsp;The Malaysian regulator said it deemed the platform&#39;s safeguards inadequate, adding that access would resume only after the required changes are verified.&nbsp;X Corp. had &quot;failed to address the inherent risks posed by the design and operation of the AI tool&quot;, relying &quot;primarily on user-initiated reporting mechanisms&quot;, the regulator said.&nbsp;European officials and tech campaigners on Friday slammed Grok after its controversial image creation feature was restricted to paying subscribers, saying the change failed to address concerns about sexualized deep fakes.&nbsp;Grok had appeared to deflect the criticism with a new monetization policy, posting on X on Thursday that image generation and editing were now &quot;limited to paying subscribers&quot;, alongside a link to a premium subscription.

Artificial Intelligence

Malaysia suspended access to Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok after it was misused to generate pornographic and sexualized images, including of women and minors, citing inadequate safeguards. The ban follows similar global backlash and Indonesia’s earlier move.

Malaysia suspends access to Musk's Grok AI: regulator

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday to &quot;make a deal&quot; or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would now stop.&nbsp;&quot;There will be no more oil or money going to cuba - zero!&quot; Trump said on his Truth Social channel. &quot;I strongly suggest they make a deal, before it is too late.&quot;&nbsp;His remarks come a week after US forces seized Venezuela&#39;s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.&nbsp;Earlier on Sunday, Trump reposted a message suggesting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio could become the president of now communist-ruled Cuba.&nbsp;Trump shared that post with the comment: &quot;Sounds good to me!&quot;&nbsp;In his own post soon afterwards, Trump said that &quot;Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of oil and money from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided &#39;Security Services&#39; for the last two Venezuelan dictators, but not anymore!&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week&#39;s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn&#39;t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.&quot;&nbsp;Under a US trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro&#39;s predecessor Hugo Chavez.

US President Donald Trump warned Cuba to “make a deal” or face consequences, saying Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop following US actions against Venezuela’s leadership.

Articles by Faraz Saeed/Mariam Ellahi