International News
UN calls for end to education gap

The UN’s Transforming Education Summit has offered an opportunity to galvanise global action to recover learning losses and rethink education systems.
With Covid-19 exposing the fault lines of education systems globally, more than 130 countries have committed to rebooting their education systems and accelerating action to end the learning crisis, said the organisers of the summit, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened, reports Xinhua news agency.
Education is in a deep crisis. Instead of being the great enabler, education is fast becoming the great divider, said Guterres in his speech to the opening of the leaders’ meeting day of the summit.
The summit was held on the sidelines of this year’s UN General Assembly high-level week.
Some 70 per cent of 10-year-olds in poor countries cannot read a basic text. Even in developed countries, education systems often entrench rather than reduce inequality, reproducing it across generations. The rich have access to the best resources, schools and universities, leading to the best jobs. At the same time, the poor, especially girls, face huge obstacles to getting the qualifications that could change their lives, said Guterres.
Displaced people and students with disabilities face the highest obstacles of all. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on learning worldwide. But the education crisis began long before, and runs much deeper, he said.
Education systems are failing students and societies. Too often, curricula are outdated and narrow. Education systems take little account of life-long learning. Teachers are under-trained, undervalued and underpaid. The digital divide penalizes poor students. The education financing gap yawns wider than ever, said Guterres.
“We will not end this crisis by simply doing more of the same, faster or better. Now is the time to transform education systems,” he said.
The UN chief called for action in five areas to transform education.
First, more work is needed to protect the right to quality education for everyone, especially girls, everywhere.
He said today’s teachers need to be facilitators in the classroom, promoting learning rather than merely transmitting answers.
“We also need to tackle the global shortage of teachers, and look at increasing their quality by raising their status and ensuring they have decent working conditions and continuous training and learning opportunities and receive adequate salaries,” he said.
Schools must also become safe, healthy spaces with no place for violence, stigma or intimidation. Education systems should promote the physical and mental health of all students, including their sexual and reproductive health, he said, adding that the digital revolution must benefit all learners.
He said that none of the above will be possible without a surge in education financing and global solidarity.
Guterres and Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for global education, launched the International Facility on Financing for Education during the summit, a first-of-its-kind tool that aims to mobilize $10 billion to help 700 million children in lower-middle-income countries to access quality education.
The tool combines direct grants and guarantees that can multiply donor resources.
It uses donor guarantees to provide a new form of quasi-equity to multilateral development banks, which can raise additional financing in capital markets and provide funding to countries for education.
Setting out a vision statement at the summit, he called on countries to revisit the purposes of education, proposing that curricula must respond to broad purposes, including learning to learn, learning to live together, learning to do and learning to be.
International News
Indian Woman Anju Celebrates Pakistan’s Independence Day With Husband Nasrullah, Cuts Cake

Indian woman Anju, who went to Pakistan to meet her Facebook friend Nasrullah, was seen celebrating Pakistan’s independence day on Monday (August 14). Pakistan marks its independence day on August 14 every year, a day ahead of India’s Independence Day. In a video shared on social media, Anju can be seen during the cake cutting along with Nasrullah to celebrate Pakistan’s independence day.
Anju’s story made headlines
Anju, a married woman with children, got to know Nasrullah of Pakistan on Facebook. As friendship grew between the two, Anju tried to get a visa for close to two years in India, said reports. Anju recently went to Pakistan after getting the visa. Reports claimed that she converted to Islam in Pakistan and also got married to Nasrullah. However, she denied the claims in a video she released and said she wanted to return to India.
Anju’s father disowns her
Recently, Anju’s father, fed up of constant media presence at this house had castigated Anju for her decision to cross borders for love and marrying Nasrullah, as reports claimed. Anju’s father had said that he wished for her daughter not to return and said, ‘Let her die there’.
Anju’s husband in India was shocked when he learnt about Anju having gone to Pakistan to meet her Facebook friend Nasrullah. The husband had said that Anju had told her she was going to Jaipur and that she would return back in a few days. However, he was shocked when police came calling after reports that Anju had gone to Pakistan went viral.
Anju and Seema Haider, tale of two women
Anju’s story emerged even as news about Pakistani woman Seema Haider’s dramatic and suspicious entry into India along with her four children dominated news space. Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman, had entered India from Nepal and an investigation was carried out in the case. She married Sachin Meena who lives in Greater Noida.
Crime
Asains found guilty of smuggling migrants to UK

A 38-year-old Asian-origin man has been found guilty of being part of an organised crime group linked to the prolific smuggling of migrants, including minors, to the UK.
Najib Khan, 38, from Ilford was identified as being part of the network by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), following the arrest of his co-conspirator Waqas Ikram, 40, in March 2021.
Ikram, who was caught red-handed attempting to break into a heavy goods vehicle to put migrants inside, worked for a people smuggling organised crime group headed by Mokter Hossain.
An iPhone belonging to Ikram, seized following his arrest, contained numerous conversations with Khan outlining their involvement in a separate people smuggling network, charging migrants up to 7,000 pounds a head to bring them to the UK, the NCA said in a statement.
Phone evidence showed that Khan and Ikram had been involved in a successful crossing involving five migrants being transported into Harwich in March 2019, and two other attempts that had been foiled by border agents.
The first of these was in May 2019, when 15 Vietnamese and one Afghan migrant were found in a lorry at the Hook of Holland as it prepared to board a ferry to Harwich.
In the same year in August, 16 migrants including 11 minors, were rescued from a purpose built concealment in a lorry carrying 2,000 loose tyres.
The lorry was preparing to board a ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven, and officers reported the heat and the nature of the concealment made breathing difficult.
The lorry drivers involved in both would later be jailed in the Netherlands and France, but the NCA was able to prove Ikram’s crime group had been involved in both attempts.
Further conversations between Khan and Ikram showed they were using GPS trackers to follow lorries that they had arranged to be broken into without drivers’ knowledge to stow migrants.
One of the trackers was found at Khan’s house when he was arrested by the NCA. In 2020, Khan and Ikram purchased a rigid hull inflatable boat for the purpose of smuggling migrants, and Ikram attended a course for piloting powerboats that June, the NCA said.
In July, the pair were encountered by Border Force off the coast of Suffolk in their RHIB.
They told officers they were scouting for scuba diving sites, and returned to Walton-on-the-Naze.
“Ikram and Khan had no regard for the safety and security of those they were transporting, they were only interested in making money from them,” NCA branch commander Andy Noyes said in a statement.
“In at least one case it was only the fact that the migrants were discovered by border agents that prevented them being left in what could have been an incredibly dangerous, and potential fatal, situation,” Noyes added.
Ikram was arrested by the NCA in 2021, charged with people smuggling offences and released on bail by the court. Both he and Khan were detained in connection with further offences by the NCA in July 2022 and charged with three counts of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.
While Ikram pleaded guilty to the charge, Khan went to trial, following which a jury at Reading Crown Court on Friday found him guilty on all three counts.
They will be sentenced on October 30.
International News
Pakistan Drones Dropping Drugs In Punjab, Admits PM Shehbaz Sharif’s Close Aide On TV Show

A senior official in the Pakistan government has admitted that Pakistani smugglers are using drones to smuggle illicit drugs, mostly heroin into Indian territory. Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, the Special Assistant on Defence to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made these remarks to Hamid Mir, a journalist associated with Pakistan’s News.
Mir has posted a video on his Twitter handle of the interview with Khan, who is also the Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) representing Kasur city, which borders the state of Punjab in India.
The Pakistani journalist tweeted on July 17, captioned as, “Big disclosure by PM’s advisor Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan. Smugglers using drones in the flood-affected areas of Kasur near Pakistan-India border to transport heroin. He demanded a special package for the rehabilitation of the flood victims otherwise victims will join smugglers.”
Malik Khan Admits About Cross-Border Smuggling
In the video clip of the interview posted by the Pakistani journalist, Malik Khan is heard saying, “This (Kasur near LOC) is a rangers area. Due to some border regulations, there is some sensitivity.” When the journalist asks the special advisor to Pakistan PM about the issue of cross-border smuggling of narcotics in Kasur he affirms the development. “Sure, it (smuggling via drone) is happening and it is very unfortunate. Recently there have been two incidents where 10 kg of heroin was tied to each drone and thrown across. Agencies are working on it.” Indian security forces have brought down a number of drones in recent times carrying contraband.
Drug Smuggling Incidents In Border Areas This Year
In April this year, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said that security forces have taken many counter-measures to tackle incidents of dropping of weapons and drugs by drones sent by Pakistan.
Earlier this month, on July 21, BSF and Punjab Police troops recovered a drone in broken condition from the farming field near Mastgarh village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.
On specific information, BSF and Punjab Police launched a search operation and recovered the Pakistani drone from the outskirts of Mastgarh village. “The recovered drone belongs to Quadcopter, DJI Matrice 300 RTK model,” officials said.
Multiple Drones Shot Down, Contrabands Seized
Earlier, the Border Security Force (BSF) foiled the nefarious design of smugglers by seizing 2.35 kg of heroin dropped by a Pakistani drone near the International Border in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.
During the detailed search, the BSF troops recovered one packet of narcotics suspected to be heroin weighing 2.35 kg wrapped with yellow adhesive tape from the farming field ahead of border fencing.
On June 29, BSF troops recovered approximately 5.120 kg of suspected heroin dropped by a Pakistani drone near the International Border in farming fields of Village- Khalra in Tarn Taran district.
Earlier, on June 24, the troops of the BSF shot down a Pakistani drone that had intruded into the Indian airspace in Punjab’s Tarn Taran sector. Also, the BSF shot and brought down a Pakistani drone in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.
On June 22, the BSF in Punajb’s Fazilka recovered a drone originating from the Pakistan side and two packets of suspected narcotics near the Abohar border.
“On specific information, alert BSF troops recovered a Pakistani drone (DJI Matrice 300 RTK) on June 22, during morning hours along with 2 kg (appx) suspected heroin near the international border in Jodhawala village of Fazilka district,” BSF Punjab Frontier said.
BSF personnel in Rajasthan’s Bikaner recovered a drone originating from the Pakistan side and two packets of suspected narcotics near the Rawla border.
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