Zelensky denies Ukrainian troops encircled in Russia's Kursk region

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, March 15, 2025, a Russian "Grad" self-propelled multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions near Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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Updated 15 March 2025
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Zelensky denies Ukrainian troops encircled in Russia's Kursk region

  • Zelenskiy says Kursk operation ongoing, Ukrainian troops not encircled

KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky denied Saturday any “encirclement” of his troops by Moscow’s forces in Russia’s Kursk region, a day after US President Donald Trump made the claim.
“There is no encirclement of our troops,” Zelensky said on social media, adding: “Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region.”

Ukraine said Saturday it had downed 130 Russian-launched drones across the country at night, as international efforts to end the three-year war intensify.
Kyiv’s air force said the Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed over 14 regions and that Moscow had also attacked with two ballistic missiles.


Saudi Arabia expands aid project for flood-affected families in Pakistan

Updated 20 sec ago
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Saudi Arabia expands aid project for flood-affected families in Pakistan

  • The project “reflects the directives of the Saudi leadership and its continued support for the people of Pakistan.”

Riyadh: Saudi aid agency KSrelief has launched the third phase of its food security support project in Pakistan, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The launch ceremony was held at the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad, attended by Saudi Ambassador Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain, and other officials.

Al-Malki said the project “reflects the directives of the Saudi leadership and its continued support for the people of Pakistan.”

He added that it is part of a series of KSrelief initiatives intended to help vulnerable families, particularly those affected by floods across the country.

The project will distribute more than 30,000 food baskets in various regions of Pakistan. Each basket contains essential food items sufficient for a family for one month, the SPA reported.

The project will assist a total of 210,000 people, Al-Malki added.

Hussain expressed the gratitude of the Pakistani government and people for Saudi Arabia’s ongoing humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, KSrelief concluded the Saudi Noor program to combat blindness and its causes in Settat, Morocco, on Saturday.

During the week-long campaign, medical volunteers examined 2,525 patients, performed 276 surgeries, and distributed 957 pairs of glasses.

In Yemen, a KSrelief team visited vocational training centers in Seiyun district, Hadramout governorate, to assess the Vocational Pathways project aimed at empowering young men and women.

The team reviewed training programs in motorcycle electrical maintenance and sewing and tailoring, which are benefiting 40 participants from both the host community and displaced populations.

The project is part of the Kingdom’s humanitarian efforts to benefit Yemeni youth through vocational training and tools, contributing to sustainable development for the country.

In Sudan, KSrelief distributed 500 food baskets to displaced families in several towns in Blue Nile State, benefiting 3,266 people. The agency also distributed 1,550 food baskets in El-Gadarif State, benefiting 10,230 individuals.

-ENDS-


Kingdom arrests 17,863 illegals in one week

Updated 5 min 49 sec ago
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Kingdom arrests 17,863 illegals in one week

  • A total of 10,746 people were arrested for violations of residency laws, while 4,362 were held over illegal border crossing attempts

RIYADH: Saudi authorities arrested 17,863 people in one week for breaching residency, work and border security regulations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.

A total of 10,746 people were arrested for violations of residency laws, while 4,362 were held over illegal border crossing attempts, and a further 2,755 for labor-related issues.

The report showed that among the 1,507 people arrested for trying to enter the Kingdom illegally, 65 percent were Ethiopian, 33 percent Yemeni, and 2 percent were of other nationalities.

A further 99 people were caught trying to cross into neighboring countries, and 26 were held for involvement in transporting and harboring violators, the SPA reported.

The Ministry of Interior said that anyone found to be facilitating illegal entry to the Kingdom, including providing transportation and shelter, could face imprisonment for a maximum of 15 years, a fine of up to SR1 million ($267,000), as well as confiscation of vehicles and property.

Suspected violations can be reported on the toll-free number 911 in the Makkah and Riyadh regions, and 999 or 996 in other regions of the Kingdom.


Three militants killed in ‘encounter’ in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — police

Updated 8 min 21 sec ago
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Three militants killed in ‘encounter’ in Pakistan’s volatile northwest — police

  • The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up their attacks against security forces, police in Pakistan’s northwest in recent months
  • Counter-terrorism department says the deceased militants had been involved in bomb blasts, attacks on police and other offenses

KARACHI: Three Pakistani Taliban militants were killed in an “encounter” with police and counter-terrorism department (CTD) personnel in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the CTD said on Saturday.

CTD officials from KP’s Bannu district conducted a raid in Lakki Marwat along with local police on intelligence report about the presence of militants, according to a CTD statement.

It resulted into a shootout with militants which left three members of the Pakistani Taliban’s Tipu Gul group dead, whereas officials seized three Kalashnikovs and hundreds of rounds from the site.

“Bannu CTD wanted the deceased terrorists for their involvement in IED (improvised explosive device) blasts, attacks on police and other serious offenses,” the CTD statement said.

Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Islamabad broke down in late 2022.

The TTP and other militant groups have frequently targeted security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in the region in recent months. Bannu has seen a number of attacks on security forces, while a number of policemen have been killed in targeted killings in Lakki Marwat.

Islamabad accuses India of backing militant groups and Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny the allegation.


As Karachi heats up, class and access divide city into a ‘climate apartheid’

Updated 29 min 59 sec ago
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As Karachi heats up, class and access divide city into a ‘climate apartheid’

  • Pakistan’s largest city exposes a stark class divide in access to electricity and cooling as temperatures soar
  • In some neighborhoods, electricity lasts two hours a day while the wealthy stay cool with air-conditioning, solar backup

KARACHI: When the sun rises over the portside slums of Keamari in the Pakistani megacity of Karachi, 48-year-old mason Fazal Rahim steps out with his rusted tools into the searing heat.

By the time he returns home at night, drenched in sweat, there’s often no electricity to power even a single fan.

“It’s still unbearably hot and there’s no electricity either,” Rahim told Arab News.

“Our home turns into a hell, the children cry and heat rashes break out on their skin.”

As Pakistan’s largest city sweltered through a record-breaking heatwave in June, temperatures soared past 42 degrees Celsius (over 107°F), exposing a harsh urban reality: while the wealthy kept cool in air-conditioned homes, the poor suffered hours of unrelenting heat in overcrowded neighborhoods plunged into darkness by extended power outages.

Karachi’s two-tiered climate reality, shaped by class and access, now resembles what human rights advocates describe as “climate apartheid,” a term that captures how climate change disproportionately affects marginalized populations while the wealthy remain buffered.

Hospitals across the city, including the government-run Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), saw a spike in heat-related illnesses.

“We had nearly a thousand patients last year who came in with heatstroke,” said Dr. Irfan Siddiqui, head of JPMC’s emergency department, citing a rise in cases of dehydration, food poisoning and heat exhaustion this year.

POWER DIVIDE

More than 90 percent of Pakistan’s international trade flows through Karachi, a city of over 20 million people and the country’s economic engine. But despite its centrality to Pakistan’s economy, the city’s basic infrastructure, especially in its low-income neighborhoods, is chronically neglected.

A student walks past a display of locally manufactured evaporative air coolers for sale, outside a shop, during a hot summer day, in Karachi, Pakistan on May 27, 2025. (REUTERS/File)

Some residents, like Rahim in Bhutta Village, reported only two hours of electricity in a full day last month. In stark contrast, affluent areas such as Clifton and Defense Housing Authority (DHA) remained largely unaffected by power outages, with many homes powered by private solar panels or diesel generators.

K-Electric, the city’s sole power distributor, insists the disparity is not based on class.

“The load-shedding schedule is purely determined on a commercial basis,” said Bilal Memon, a spokesperson for the utility. “Areas with higher theft and lower bill recovery face longer outages.”

Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) confirmed in its latest State of Industry Report (2023) that Karachi faces some of the highest transmission and distribution losses among major cities — a result of illegal connections, aging infrastructure, and weak governance. The report also noted that high-loss areas tend to face longer outages as a penalty mechanism.

For those already on the margins, like Tahira Perveen, a widowed asthma patient residing in the low-income Manzoor colony, the unpredictability of the electricity supply can be dangerous.

“As for electricity, no one knows when it will come,” she said. “During the heat, it [the outage] happens all night and all day.”

A CITY GETTING HOTTER

Karachi is among the world’s ten fastest-warming megacities, according to urban climate assessments by the United Nations Environment Program. The city has warmed at nearly double Pakistan’s national average, with temperatures rising by approximately 0.34°C per decade since 1960, according to Sardar Sarfaraz, the former director of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

The causes are well documented: unchecked urbanization, the destruction of green spaces, and widespread use of concrete that traps heat. Karachi lost over 20 percent of its tree cover between 2008 and 2019, according to satellite data analyzed by the Global Forest Watch platform.

Man sits outside an iron hardware tools workshop, as he pauses during the power outage in hot weather in Karachi, Pakistan on June 17, 2025. (REUTERS/File)

“There are narrow lanes, very, very poorly ventilated houses, and it’s all a concrete jungle,” said Karachi-based climate expert Afia Salam.

“There is a segment, large segment of population, which is more impacted than the others. And then on top of it, if I put the gender lens on, the women are more impacted because culturally, they do not have access to the open spaces.”

Indeed, in the city’s informal settlements, women and children are often confined indoors, where poor ventilation and a lack of cooling options increase health risks during heatwaves.

CLIMATE INEQUALITY

Pakistan is ranked among the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index by Germanwatch. Nearly 45 percent of its population lives below the poverty line, per the World Bank, and the country faces mounting challenges in coping with environmental shocks — from floods and droughts to rising temperatures.

In 2024, the International Monetary Fund approved $1.3 billion in climate-linked funding for Pakistan to support adaptation and resilience efforts. But activists say little climate funding is reaching those most in need.

“The policies being made don’t reflect the ground realities,” said Fatima Majeed, an activist working with coastal communities affected by rising sea levels and heat. “The people for whom these policies are intended are rarely consulted.”

Locals ride on a boat during a hot summer day in Karachi, Pakistan on May 29, 2024. (REUTERS/File)

Her concerns were echoed by Yasir Husain, founder of the Karachi-based Climate Action Center.

“We find that the government is least interested in this,” he said. “When there are programs, there is funding. [But] that money is not used to help the vulnerable populations.”

Sindh’s Environment and Climate Change Secretary, Agha Shahnawaz Khan, pointed to ongoing efforts: penalizing smoke-emitting vehicles, tree plantation drives, mangrove restoration and solarizing public buildings.

“We will continue to lag behind until the community supports the government and the government takes proper initiatives,” he said.

COOLING FOR A FEW

Twelve kilometers from Rahim’s baking slum, Dr. Navaira Ali Bangash lives in comfort, her home equipped with air conditioners and backup power systems.

“We are probably the most privileged people who have air-conditioning installed at our homes, offices and even in our cars,” she said. “But then there are those underprivileged people... who cannot even afford basic fans.”

Teenager covers an eye of his pet donkey with his palm as he pours water to cool it off during a hot day in Karachi, Pakistan on June 16, 2025. (REUTERS/File)

While climate change is often described as a global challenge, in Karachi it is deeply local — a force that exposes long-standing inequalities in housing, infrastructure, and health care.

For Rahim, the national climate discourse and international funding commitments matter little. His immediate concern is whether the ceiling fan in his single-room home will run tonight.

“Electricity [outages] have made our lives miserable,” he said, his voice tired and defeated in the oppressive heat.


Hamas says ready to start talks ‘immediately’ on Gaza ceasefire

Updated 1 min 47 sec ago
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Hamas says ready to start talks ‘immediately’ on Gaza ceasefire

  • Announcement came after militant group held consultations with other Palestinian factions
  • Israel meanwhile said Saturday it was still mulling its response to a positive reaction from Hamas

JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defense agency said Israel’s ongoing offensive killed 20 people on Saturday.

The announcement came after it held consultations with other Palestinian factions and before a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war, now in its 21st month.

“The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the terms of a draft US-backed truce proposal received from mediators, the militant group said in a statement.

Israel meanwhile said Saturday it was still mulling its response to a positive reaction from Hamas to the latest US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.

“No decision has been made yet on that issue,” a government official said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Israel’s security cabinet was due to meet later on Saturday, after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown, Israeli media reported.

Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded “guarantees” that Israel “will not resume its aggression” once hostages held in Gaza are freed.

Trump, when asked about Hamas’s response aboard Air Force One on Friday, said: “That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”

The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants.

On Friday, Netanyahu again pledged to bring home the hostages, after coming under massive domestic pressure over their fate.

Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for guarantees that any new ceasefire will be lasting.

A previous round of talks broke down in May with Hamas and Israel trading blame for its failure.

The Palestinian militant group said it had given a “positive response” to a truce proposal from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, but its request for a guarantee that hostilities would not resume had been rejected by Israel.

A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposal included “a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip” — thought to number 22 — “in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.”

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli military operations killed 20 people across the war-battered territory on Saturday.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.

Bassal said five of the dead were killed in a strike on a school in Gaza City.

A second strike near another school in the city where displaced civilians had found shelter killed three people and wounded around 10, including children, he said.

Many Gazans have sought shelter in schools and other public buildings since the war began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.

The civil defense agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people on Friday.

The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.