The little-known senator from Balochistan has been nominated to lead the country until its next general election.

Pakistani senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has been named as caretaker prime minister to oversee national elections, the prime minister’s office has said, following a meeting between outgoing premier Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raja Riaz Ahmad.

“The prime minister [Sharif] and leader of opposition have jointly signed the advice which will be sent to the president for approval,” they said in a statement.

The little-known senator from Balochistan, Pakistan’s least-populous province, will head an interim government until the next vote.

“We first agreed that whoever should be prime minister, he should be from a smaller province so smaller provinces’ grievances should be addressed,” Riaz said after a meeting with Sharif.

Kakar is listed as an independent politician by the Senate, but is reported by local media to be a part of the Balochistan Awami Party, which is widely considered to be close to the country’s powerful military.

Pakistan’s parliament was dissolved on Wednesday and by law, an election should be held within 90 days, but the results of the latest census released last week means more time will likely be needed to redraw constituencies.

The Election Commission has to draw new boundaries for hundreds of federal and provincial constituencies and, based on that, it will give an election date.

The vote will likely go ahead without former prime minister Imran Khan, who was convicted of corruption last weekend and sentenced to three years in jail. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The interim government takes over a country that has been in political turmoil since Khan was dismissed by a no-confidence vote in April 2022, and which is also facing overlapping economic and security issues.

Khan was briefly arrested in May, following which thousands of his protesters stormed the streets, targeting government and army properties.

Some of those protesters are being tried in controversial military courts.

Meanwhile, Khan’s speeches and news conferences are banned from mainstream media while dozens of his party leaders have quit after alleged coercion by the military establishment.

The former prime minister has repeatedly accused Pakistan’s powerful military and its intelligence agency of openly trying to destroy his political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, and said previously he had “no doubt” that he would be arrested ahead of the general election.

The military continues to have a huge role behind the scenes in Pakistan. It has ruled the country directly for more than three decades of its 76-year existence and wields significant power in politics.

Political analysts say that if the caretaker setup stretches beyond its constitutional tenure, a prolonged period without an elected government would allow the military to consolidate its control.

For some time now, I have been victim to a number of health-related issues: I’m tired, cranky, constantly hungry, plagued by headaches, and my pee is a harrowing mustard yellow. I’ve tried googling my symptoms and asking friends and family what I can do to improve my quality of life, and the answer I get is always the same: Drink water. It’s become increasingly evident that drinking water would solve absolutely all of my problems. Here’s why I won’t do it.

I’ve always had the proper sense of self-worth necessary to want the best for myself. Maybe if this was 100 years ago, before medicine existed, I would drink some water and hope that hydrating my cells would allow them to function properly again, but that’s not the case. It’s the 21st century, and there’s no such thing as a problem you can’t pinpoint and fix with a supplement, injection, or health secret that my doctor doesn’t want me to know because it would put her out of business. I even went so far as to confront my doctor with this theory and she said, “Please, no. There is no secret. You have to drink water or you will die,” which is exactly what someone with a secret would say.

I’ve always had a keen sense of when people are holding out on me. When I wanted to just get rid of the flap of skin between my underarms and boobs that forms when I wear tube tops, I went to a physical trainer and she told me that wasn’t possible and I would have to establish a holistic exercise routine for that to change. I left immediately. I still have that flap.

At this point, to start drinking water would be to give up on the possibility of a better life without any effort. There are a million moisture-locking serums from, I want to say, Australia, that I will gladly purchase before I slurp down some H2O to alleviate my flaking and broken out skin. I’m not just going to follow rules because someone on the internet or my whole family tells me to. I’m going to listen to my gut – and my gut says, “You are going to die soon.” So I’m just gonna do what I want.

Besides, why would I waste my time putting clear wet in my mouth when I could drink flavor? If you want me to start drinking water, you’re going to have to pry this diet Coke of my hands, which will actually be easy because the dehydration has severely affected my joints and I hardly can grip things at all.

What’s more important than making healthy choices is self-awareness. I am fully aware of the fact that drinking water would enable my body to function and improve my mood and eyesight which has become a bit cloudy in a bout of what cowboys call “desert sickness,” but I also know there has to be a better way.

And that’s why I’ll never drink water.

With its wine-hued head, cream-colored body, and its wings striped in black and chestnut brown, Kaempfer’s woodpecker makes quite an impression. Yet, despite its conspicuous looks, the bird has managed to evade detection for almost a century.

First described by ornithologist Emil Kaempfer in the mid-1920s in the Brazilian state of Piauí, east of Tocantins, it was initially thought to be a subspecies of the rufous-headed woodpecker (Celeus spectabilis). But differences in habitat, behavior and plumage led some ornithologists to conclude they were looking at a new species. They didn’t have the chance to confirm it, however: with no further sightings of the bird recorded, they thought that Kaempfer’s woodpecker had disappeared.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that a fresh look at the differences between the two woodpecker species showed that Kaempfer’s woodpecker was indeed a distinct species endemic to Brazil. Then, in 2006, biologist Advaldo Prado captured a live individual in Tocantins, showing that scientists previously had just been looking in the wrong place.

Tulio Dornas, an ornithologist from the Federal University of Tocantins who has studied the species’ ecology and distribution, said an error in the early records may have contributed to the confusion. Kaempfer’s original specimen, he said, “was collected at the extreme edge of the Cerrado, during an expedition to the Caatinga, so ornithologists back then wrongly assumed it was a bird from that biome,” Dornas told Mongabay.

Yet even in the Cerrado, finding the bird can be a challenge, he added. The species thrives in the gallery forests that line the riverbanks of the Cerradão, a type of dry forest within the savanna ecosystem. They’re particularly fond of shaded areas with mature taboca bamboo plants (Gauda paniculata), which host the woodpecker’s main food source: ants. Reliant on only a few ant species that nest within the bamboo, the woodpeckers flit between thickets, drilling holes into the shoots to extract their prey.

As researchers narrowed down the bird’s habitat and intensified their search, sightings began to be reported from several Brazilian states, including Goiás, Matto Grosso, Maranhão and Piauí, indicating that while the woodpecker was rare, it wasn’t as endangered as previously thought. As a result, its conservation status on the IUCN Red List improved from critically endangered to vulnerable.

But with about 47% of the Cerrado’s original cover lost to agriculture, the habitat of Kaempfer’s woodpecker remains under pressure; today, it’s either severely fragmented or at imminent risk of agricultural conversion. As more details about the species came to light, concern about its future has also increased.

“We couldn’t find it in a single protected area, be it a national or state park, anywhere in Brazil,” Dornas said.

David Vergara-Tabares, a researcher at Argentina’s National Research and Scientific Training Council (CONICET) who has studied land-use impacts on woodpeckers globally, said the situation facing Kaempfer’s woodpecker isn’t uncommon in the region.

“Protected areas cover less than 10% of the regions where these birds are found in South America,” he told Mongabay. “Approximately a quarter of woodpecker species’ distribution ranges are affected by agriculture and urbanization. It’s a problem that has been worsening in recent years.”

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-safeguard-a-rare-brazilian-woodpecker-an-ngo-bought-out-its-habitat/

Iran has managed to secure the release of more than 10 billion worth of funds that have been illegally blocked in South Korea and Iraq for several years because oof US sanctions, a source has told official IRNA news agency.

The source made the statement on Thursday after media reports said Iran and the US had reached a prisoner swap deal that also included the release of Iranian funds held in South Korea.

The source said the release of the funds under the deal include $6 billion worth of assets blocked in South Korea as well as a “significant amount of Iranian funds held in the Trade Bank of Iraq”.

The statement said the funds in South Korea had already been changed into euro in a bank in Switzerland and were ready to be transferred to an account in the central bank of Qatar as agreed under the prisoner swap deal with the US.

The source confirmed reports that the prisoners had been transferred “to a place outside prison” for the purpose of exchange, adding, however, that they would not be freed until the funds were transferred to accounts designated by Iran.

It came after reports by US media outlets including the New York Times and the CNN quoted sources as saying that Washington will allow the transfer of nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea to an account in the central bank of Qatar where Iran can use them for purchases of food and medicine.

They said the US will also release several Iranian prisoners as part of the deal which will see Iran free five American prisoners.

They claimed that four of the prisoners had been already released from a prison in Tehran into house arrest. The report said the fifth American prisoner was already under house arrest in the country.

Despite having no diplomatic relations with the US, Iranian officials have said in the past that they will be open to prisoner exchange talks with the US out of respect for humanitarian issues.

However, Iran has denied reports that it will accept any restricted access to its blocked funds in other countries, including for humanitarian purchases.

The Iranian government started a procedure earlier this month to refer the dispute with South Korea over the blocked funds to international arbitration.

A lawmaker in the Iranian parliament said earlier this week that Iran will have many options to force South Korea pay back the debt it owes to Iran for purchases of energy products in the past.

India is barring domestic manufacturers of military drones from using Chinese-made parts over concerns about security vulnerabilities, Reuters reported today (Aug. 8).

The two neighbours have been part of several border standoffs in recent years, and, citing national security threats, India has already banned a slew of Chinese apps and introduced phased import restrictions on Chinese drones. India’s security leaders are now concerned that their intelligence-gathering could be compromised by Chinese components in their drones’ communication systems, cameras, radio transmission, and operating software, according to several government and industry insiders who spoke anonymously to Reuters.

A lot of guerrilla gardeners simply want to supply healthy food for themselves and their neighbors, while others want to beautify their communities, make them less hot (green spaces help cities stay cool), or support pollinators and local wildlife. Still others put extra emphasis on the ​“guerrilla” part: The fall 2001 issue of the anarchist quarterly Disorderly Conduct, for example, suggests particular greenery to plant ​“along the foundation of government buildings” to ​“tear up concrete.”

The organization Food Not Lawns says a good place to start is by replacing your own lawn with food and native plants. But because not everyone owns a lawn, advocates argue there is major guerilla potential in, er, ​“extra-legal” spaces. Abandoned lots are a common site for guerilla gardens, as are strips of land along roads and sidewalks, and even city parks. Often covered in concrete or (at best) mowed grass, all that land could instead be feeding us, shading us, helping pollinators and generally making our lives more pleasant. (And yes, you can always start by asking the city for permission.)

Another way to start is by ​“propaganda of the seed.” Some gardeners make ​“seedbombs,” which are little balls of compost, clay and seeds. As gardener Josie Jeffery explains in her book, Seedbombs: Going Wild with Flowers, the clay holds the ​“bomb” together so the seeds don’t scatter in the wind, while the compost provides nutrients. ​“Here you have in the palm of your hand a little revolution,” she writes, ​“something that contains the early stages of a field of wild flowers, edible crops or a herb garden.” You can throw these seedbombs anywhere— into an alleyway or out your bus window — so long as you are conscious of whether the seeds you chose are a good fit for the local environment.

“Next time you see a foxglove growing by a set of traffic lights,” Jeffery writes, ​“you’ll know a guerrilla gardener has been there!”

The Barbie movie won’t make it to Vietnam’s silver screens, apparently due to a scene starring the nine-dot line map that depicts China’s claims to disputed waters in the South China sea.

The Warner Bros. film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling was due for release in the country on July 21, the same date as the US. According to local news website VnExpress, the announcement came on Monday (July 3) from Vi Kien Thanh, the head of the Vietnam cinema department at the ministry of culture, sports, and tourism, who attributed the decision to the National Film Evaluation Council.

Maps featuring the U-shaped vague and broken line through the South China Sea was declared unusable by an international tribunal in 2016. Several governments, including Taiwan, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, claim stake in the disputed waters. Beijing rejected ruling.

The Greta Gerwig-directed movie isn’t the first to fall foul of regulators because of the map.

update :

Here is the picture of the map via a twitter user

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0HNdA1aYAAr_eE?format=jpg&name=large

CAMBRIDGE, MA—In the wake of the 6-3 Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action, Harvard University announced Thursday that they would admit their first white student. “After nearly four centuries in existence, we are finally able to leave behind our woeful legacy of discrimination and accept our first student of Caucasian descent,” said Harvard president Lawrence Bacow, who hailed the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case for allowing them to offer admission to a student who met their rigorous academic standards, but just happened to be from a Caucasoid background. “For generations, students of every racial identity have pursued their passions in these halls of learning—all racial identities except for white. Thankfully, today, that changes. The 19-year-old student who we admitted, Hamilton Whitaker, has an excellent record and impressive extracurriculars. Indeed, we believe Hamilton and other whites like him might find themselves much more at home here than they expected.” At press time, President Biden had reportedly called in the 101st Airborne Division to safely escort the white student onto Harvard’s campus.