AFP Asia

Britain has lifted restrictions on Pakistani airlines, the UK embassy in Islamabad said on Wednesday, ending a five-year ban on the country’s beleaguered national carrier.Flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines was barred from flying to Britain in June 2020, a month after one of its aircraft plunged into a Karachi street, killing nearly 100 people.The disaster was attributed to human error by the pilots and air traffic control, and was followed by allegations that nearly a third of the licences for its pilots were fake or dubious.The UK Air Safety Committee had decided to lift the ban following aviation safety improvements in Pakistan, the British High Commission in Islamabad said, adding that decisions on de-listing states and air carriers were made “through an independent aviation safety process”.”Based on this independent and technically-driven process, it has decided to remove Pakistan and its air carriers from the (UK Air Safety) List,” it said in a statement.The move comes after European regulators lifted a four-year ban on PIA, with the Pakistani state-owned carrier resuming flights to Europe in January.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the lifting of the ban as “an important milestone for the country”.”The lifting of the ban on Pakistani flights by the UK is a source of relief for Pakistanis residing in Britain,” he added in a statement.PIA said it would resume services to Britain in “the shortest possible time” with the first flights operating from Islamabad to Manchester.Aviation minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged the ban had caused losses.”Confidence is being restored in Pakistani airlines once again,” he said at a news conference in Islamabad.PIA, which employs 7,000 people, has long been accused of being bloated and poorly run — hobbled by unpaid bills, a poor safety record and regulatory issues.Pakistan’s government has said it is committed to privatising the debt-ridden airline and has been scrambling to find a buyer.In 2024, a deal fell through after a potential buyer reportedly offered a fraction of the asking price.PIA came into being in 1955 when the government nationalised a loss-making commercial airline, and enjoyed rapid growth until the 1990s.

Pakistanis are increasingly ditching the national grid in favour of solar power, prompting a boom in rooftop panels and spooking a government weighed down by billions of dollars of power sector debt.The quiet energy revolution has spread from wealthy neighbourhoods to middle- and lower-income households as customers look to escape soaring electricity bills and prolonged power cuts.Down a cramped alley in Pakistan’s megacity of Karachi, residents fighting the sweltering summer heat gather in Fareeda Saleem’s modest home for something they never experienced before — uninterrupted power.”Solar makes life easier, but it’s a hard choice for people like us,” she says of the installation cost.Saleem was cut from the grid last year for refusing to pay her bills in protest over enduring 18-hour power cuts.A widow and mother of two disabled children, she sold her jewellery — a prized possession for women in Pakistan — and borrowed money from relatives to buy two solar panels, a solar inverter and battery to store energy, for 180,000 rupees ($630).As temperatures pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), children duck under Saleem’s door and gather around the breeze of her fan.Mounted on poles above homes, solar panels have become a common sight across the country of 240 million people, with the installation cost typically recovered within two to five years.Making up less than two percent of the energy mix in 2020, solar power reached 10.3 percent in 2024, according to the global energy think tank Ember.But in a remarkable acceleration, it more than doubled to 24 percent in the first five months of 2025, becoming the largest source of energy production for the first time.It has edged past gas, coal and nuclear electricity sources, as well as hydropower which has seen hundreds of millions of dollars of investment over the past decades.As a result, Pakistan has unexpectedly surged towards its target of renewable energy, making up 60 percent of its energy mix by 2030.Dave Jones, chief analyst at Ember, told AFP that Pakistan was “a leader in rooftop solar”.- ‘The great Solar rush’ -Soaring fuel costs globally, coupled with demands from the International Monetary Fund to slash government subsidies, led successive administrations to repeatedly hike electricity costs.Prices have fluctuated since 2022 but peaked at a 155-percent increase and power bills sometimes outweigh the cost of rent.”The great solar rush is not the result of any government’s policy push,” Muhammad Basit Ghauri, an energy transition expert at Renewables First, told AFP.”Residents have taken the decision out of clear frustration over our classical power system, which is essentially based on a lot of inefficiencies.”Pakistan sources most of its solar equipment from neighbouring China, where prices have dropped sharply, largely driven by overproduction and tech advancements.But the fall in national grid consumers has crept up on an unprepared government burdened by $8 billion of power sector debt, analysts say.Pakistan depends heavily on costly gas imports which it sells at a loss to national energy providers.It is also tied into lengthy contracts with independent power producers, including some owned by China, for which it pays a fixed amount regardless of actual demand.A government report in March said the solar power increase has created a “disproportionate financial burden onto grid consumers, contributing to higher electricity tariffs and undermining the sustainability of the energy sector”.Electricity sales dropped 2.8 percent year-on-year in June, marking a second consecutive year of decline.Last month, the government imposed a new 10-percent tax on all imported solar, while the energy ministry has proposed slashing the rate at which it buys excess solar energy from consumers.- ‘Disconnected from the public -“The household solar boom was a response to a crisis, not the cause of it,” said analyst Jones, warning of “substantial problems for the grid” including a surge during evenings when solar users who cannot store energy return to traditional power.The national grid is losing paying customers like businessman Arsalan Arif.A third of his income was spent on electricity bills at his Karachi home until he bought a 10-kilowatt solar panel for around 1.4 million rupees (around $4,900).”Before, I didn’t follow a timetable. I was always disrupted by the power outages,” he told AFP.Now he has “freedom and certainty” to continue his catering business.In the eastern city of Sialkot, safety wear manufacturer Hammad Noor switched to solar power in 2023, calling it his “best business decision”, breaking even in 18 months and now saving 1 million rupees every month.The cost of converting Noor’s second factory has now risen by nearly 1.5 million rupees under the new government tax.”The tax imposed is unfair and gives an advantage to big businesses over smaller ones,” he said.”Policymakers seem completely disconnected from the public and business community.”

A SpaceX capsule carrying astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary and the United States splashed down off the California coast Tuesday, completing Axiom Mission 4 and capping 20 days in space.The Ax-4 crew undocked from the International Space Station at 7:15 am EST on Monday (1115 GMT) for a 22.5-hour journey, landing in the Pacific Ocean at around 5:31 am EST (0931 GMT) on Tuesday.The capsule performed its de-orbit burn before descending toward Earth, deploying drogue and main parachutes ahead of splashdown.”Thanks for the great ride. … happy to be back,” Commander Peggy Whitson, an Axiom employee and former NASA astronaut, said after the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego.Also aboard were pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Axiom Space is a private company that organizes missions to the International Space Station, flying both wealthy individuals and, as in this case, astronauts sponsored by their governments. For the non-American trio, the mission marked a return to crewed spaceflight for their respective nations after decades-long absences.They launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25 for what turned out to be a two-and-a-half-week mission, during which they conducted around 60 scientific experiments.For rising space power India, the flight served as a key stepping stone toward its first independent crewed mission, scheduled for 2027 under the Gaganyaan (“sky craft”) program.Shukla held a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in what was widely viewed as a significant soft power moment. He recounted sharing the sweet dish gajar ka halwa with his crewmates aboard the station.This will be only SpaceX’s second crew recovery in the Pacific Ocean. The first occurred in April with the return of the Fram-2 mission. SpaceX has since shifted permanently to West Coast splashdowns, citing incidents where debris from Dragon’s trunk survived atmospheric reentry and crashed back to Earth.

India’s Fauja Singh, believed to be the world’s oldest distance runner, has died in a road accident aged 114, his biographer said Tuesday.Singh, an Indian-born British national, nicknamed the “Turbaned Tornado”, died after being hit by a vehicle in Punjab state’s Jalandhar district on Monday.”My Turbaned Tornado is no more,” Fauja’s biographer Khushwant Singh wrote on X.”He was struck by an unidentified vehicle… in his village, Bias, while crossing the road. Rest in peace, my dear Fauja.”Singh did not have a birth certificate but his family said he was born on April 1, 1911.He ran full marathons (42 kilometre) till the age of 100. His last race was a 10-kilometre (six-mile) event at the 2013 Hong Kong Marathon when 101, where he finished in one hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds.He became an international sensation after taking up distance running at the ripe old age of 89, after the death of his wife and one of his sons, inspired by seeing marathons on television. Although widely regarded as the world’s oldest marathon runner, he was not certified by Guinness World Records as he could not prove his age, saying that birth certificates did not exist when he was born under British colonial rule in 2011.Singh was a torchbearer for the Olympics at Athens 2004 and London 2012, and appeared in advertisements with sports stars such as David Beckham and Muhammad Ali.His strength and vitality were credited to a routine of farm walks and a diet including Indian sweet “laddu” packed with dry fruits and home-churned curd.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute on social media.”Fauja Singh was extraordinary because of his unique persona and the manner in which he inspired the youth of India on a very important topic of fitness,” said Modi on X”He was an exceptional athlete with incredible determination. Pained by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and countless admirers around the world.”

Ravindra Jadeja was praised Tuesday for almost taking India to an unlikely Test win at Lord’s, but former greats said a little more risk-taking with the bat might have got his side over the line.Jadeja, batting at number seven, hit a painstaking unbeaten 61 as he shepherded the tail from 112-8 at lunch chasing 193 for victory against England in the third Test. But he eventually ran out of partners after more than four hours at the crease as India were all out for 170 after tea on a nerve-shredding final day.Jadeja, who came in at 71-5 and saw India slump to 112-8 at lunch, chose to protect Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj from England’s attack by scoring singles to keep the strike and controlling his attacking instincts.Former batting great Sunil Gavaskar said on Sony Sports that scoring quicker and putting pressure back on England’s bowlers might have resulted in “a partnership of 60-70 would have made a difference”.”India never got that (partnership),” he said.”You could say that Jadeja could have taken the odd chance and not necessarily the aerial route when Joe Root and Shoaib Bashir were bowling. But full marks to him (Jadeja).”Jadeja hit just four fours and one six in his 181-ball stay before Bashir bowled number 11 Siraj to trigger jubilant England celebrations.”I’d like to look a little deeper into that whole innings,” former batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo.”There was one attempt at playing a shot that went for six. “But I don’t think there were too many attempted attacking shots.”For me, one telling moment was when he got to his fifty and India were still a few runs short. “You saw the reaction of the dressing room there were people applauding but I don’t think there was excitement around and belief that Jadeja would take them through.”India’s greatest batsman Sachin Tendulkar lamented: “So near, yet so far.””Jadeja, Bumrah, & Siraj fought all the way till the end,” he posted on X.”Well tried, Team India. England played well to keep the pressure on and produced the result they desired. Congratulations on a hard-fought win.”England lead the series 2-1 with two to play.The fourth Test starts at Manchester’s Old Trafford on July 23.

Shoaib Bashir was ruled out of the remainder of England’s series against India less than an hour after taking the match-clinching wicket in the third Test at Lord’s on Monday.The 21-year-old off-spinner spent much of the match off the field with a fracture to his little left finger — on his non-bowling hand — after dropping a hard-hit return catch from Ravindra Jadeja during India’s first innings.But he returned to dismiss Mohammed Siraj after tea on Monday’s final day when India’s last man played a defensive shot only for the ball to trickle back onto his leg stump as England won a thrilling encounter by 22 runs.Victory left England 2-1 up in this five-match series but they are now set to call-up a new specialist spinner for the fourth Test at Old Trafford starting on July 23, with the likes of Liam Dawson and Jack Leach vying to take Bashir’s place.”England spinner Shoaib Bashir has sustained a fracture to his left finger and has been ruled out of the remainder of the Rothesay Test series against India,” said an England and Wales Cricket Board statement. “He is scheduled to undergo surgery later this week. “England will name their squad for the fourth Test at Emirates Old Trafford in the next couple of days.”

A thrilling series produced a gripping finale as England beat India by 22 runs in a nail-biting third Test at Lord’s on Monday to go 2-1 up with two Tests to play.India were on the brink of defeat at 147-9, still needing a further 46 runs to reach a victory target of 193, when last man Mohammed Siraj joined Ravindra Jadeja in the middle.Nevertheless, the pair batted on until after tea on the final day to give India hope of an improbable victory.But with India eyeing a stunning success, off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who had been off the field for much of the match with a finger injury, had the final say. As Siraj played defensively, the ball spun back past him to dislodge the leg bail with the faintest of touches to leave India 170 all out. As the England fielders celebrated, the fiery Siraj was crestfallen as was his partner Jadeja who was left stranded on 61 not out — his fourth consecutive fifty this series — after batting for nearly four-and-a-half hours.England captain Ben Stokes bowled two lengthy spells Monday on his way to innings figures of 3-48 in 24 overs, with fast bowler Jofra Archer — in his first Test after more than four years of injury-induced exile — taking 3-55 in 16.- ‘Dark places’ -Lively medium-pacer Stokes, whose career has been blighted by knee injuries, again proved his worth to England as a fully-fledged all-rounder.”I thought I had taken myself to some pretty dark places before but today was… If bowling to win a Test for your country doesn’t get you up, get you excited, then I don’t know what does,” Stokes told Sky Sports.”The game was on the line and nothing was going to stop me bowling.”Victory came exactly six years to the day since Stokes and Archer both starred in England’s dramatic 2019 50-over World Cup final win over New Zealand at Lord’s.Both bowlers made early breakthroughs Monday, with player-of-the match Stokes saying the anniversary was behind his decision to open the bowlig with Archer.”Jof played a big role in that and I just had one of those feelings he would do something special,” said Stokes.The 30-year-old Archer added: “It was pretty hectic for the first game back. I probably bowled a few more overs than I thought I would have but every single one mattered today so I’m not too fussed about it.”India were all but beaten at 112-8 when tailender Jasprit Bumrah came out to bat immediately after lunch.But Jadeja and Bumrah kept England at bay with a stubborn stand of 35 in 22 overs.”I think the position in the morning, to make a comeback like this was tremendous from Ravindra Jadeja and the lower order,” said India captain Shubman Gill. Bumrah, defying a run of four successive noughts in Test cricket, defended gamely while making five in 54 balls only for his innings to end when he top-edged a pull off Stokes to substitute fielder Sam Cook at mid-on.India were now 147-9 — a position that meant tea was delayed by 30 minutes.But Jadeja, who overturned an lbw decision given against him on 26, went to fifty when a flashing cut off Stokes flew over the slips for the left-hander’s fourth four in 150 balls faced.Shortly after tea, Archer struck Siraj a painful blow on the shoulder and it was not long before he fell to Bashir.This match became a second-innings shoot-out after both teams made 387 in their first innings.England then posted 192 before India slumped to 58-4 when Stokes bowled nightwatchman Akash Deep with what became the last ball of Sunday’s play. From 71-4 on Monday, the match swung England’s way once more as India lost three wickets for 11 runs in collapsing to 82-7.Rishabh Pant — who only came into bat on Monday following Deep’s departure — charged down the pitch to drive Archer for a typically aggressive four.But two balls later Archer, repeatedly topping the 90 mph mark, bowled the  dangerman for nine with a superb full-length delivery that clipped the top of off stump.India were looking to KL Rahul to anchor their chase after the opener’s first-innings hundred.But he had added just six runs to his overnight 33 when he was lbw on review to Stokes. Archer, who made his Test debut at Lord’s in 2019, then reduced India to 82-7 when he held a sharp one-handed caught and bowled chance to dismiss Washington Sundar for a duck.

A SpaceX capsule carrying an international crew from India, Poland, Hungary, and the United States has departed the International Space Station and is set to splash down off the coast of California.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, undocked from the orbital lab at 7:15 am ET (1115 GMT) on Monday, beginning a 22.5-hour journey back to Earth.Splashdown is scheduled for 5:31 ET (0931 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday. “Thank you very much for your support. You guys are amazing,” Commander Peggy Whitson, an Axiom employee and former NASA astronaut, told flight controllers in Houston.Also aboard are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Axiom Space is a private company that organizes missions to the International Space Station, flying both wealthy individuals and, as in this case, astronauts sponsored by their national governments. For the non-American trio, the mission marked a return to crewed spaceflight for their respective nations after decades-long absences.They launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25 for what turned out to be a two-and-a-half-week mission, during which they conducted around 60 scientific experiments.For rising space power India, the flight served as a key stepping stone toward its first independent crewed mission, scheduled for 2027 under the Gaganyaan (“sky craft”) program.Shukla held a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in what was widely viewed as a significant soft power moment. He recounted sharing the sweet dish gajar ka halwa with his crewmates aboard the station.This will be only SpaceX’s second crew recovery in the Pacific Ocean. The first occurred in April with the return of the Fram-2 mission. SpaceX has since shifted permanently to West Coast splashdowns, citing incidents where debris from Dragon’s trunk survived atmospheric reentry and crashed back to Earth.

Jofra Archer struck twice as England closed in on a dramatic win over India on Monday’s final day of the third Test at Lord’s.Fast bowler Archer, in his first Test after more than four years of injury-induced exile, removed dangerman Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar as India slumped to 82-7.Ravindra Jadeja (17 not out) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (13) checked England’s progress.But when Reddy was caught behind off veteran paceman Chris Woakes on the stroke of lunch, India were 112-8 and still needing a further 81 runs to reach a victory target of 193 that would give them a 2-1 lead in this five-match series.Archer had lunch figures of 3-41 in 10 overs after also dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal late Sunday.England captain Ben Stokes, whose career has been been blighted by knee trouble, bowled himself for a lengthy spell of 15.2 overs Monday that yielded the key wicket of opener KL Rahul.    India resumed on 58-4 after lively medium-pacer Stokes had bowled nightwatchman Akash Deep with what became the last ball of Sunday’s play. But from 71-4, the match swung England’s way as India lost three wickets for 11 runs in collapsing to 82-7.Pant, two balls after charging down the pitch to drive Archer for four in typically aggressive fashion, was bowled for nine by the express quick with a superb full-length delivery that clipped the top of off stump.India were looking to Rahul to anchor their chase following the opener’s first-innings hundred.But Rahul had added just six runs to his overnight 33 when he was lbw on review to Stokes after getting too far across his stumps.And 81-6 became 82-7 when Archer held a sharp one-handed caught and bowled chance off a checked drive from Sundar to dismiss the all-rounder for a duck — a wicket greeted with raucous cheers by a large last-day crowd at Lord’s.The eight-wicket pair scored steadily before there was another flashpoint in an already heated match when Jadeja collided with bowler Brydon Carse while running between the wickets.Reddy then cover-drove Stokes in stylish fashion for India’s first four in 13 overs before he fell to Woakes.

Two major commercial pilots’ associations have rejected claims human error caused an Air India crash that killed 260 people after a preliminary investigation report found the plane’s engine fuel switches had been turned off.The report, issued Saturday by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not.No more detail about the cockpit dialogue between the pilots was revealed.The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said it was “deeply disturbed by speculative narratives… particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide.””There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage,” it said in a statement Sunday, adding, “it is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved.””To casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession,” it said.The initial probe finding sparked speculation by several independent aviation experts that deliberate or inadvertant pilot action may have caused the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash soon after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India.The ICPA was referring to a number of aviation experts suggesting engine fuel control switches can only be moved deliberately and manually.The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India), another pilots’ body with 800 members, also accused the probe agency of “secrecy” surrounding the investigation, saying “suitably qualified personnel” were not involved in it.”We feel that the investigation is being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots and we strongly object to this line of thought,” ALPA India president Sam Thomas said in a statement issued on Saturday.ALPA — which claims 100,000 members worldwide — also requested to the AAIB that it be included as “observers so as to provide the requisite transparency in the investigations”.The crash killed all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.