Rizwan Haider

Three dams. Two rivers. One moment in history. Three dams under construction: Diamer-Basha on the Indus. Dasu on the Indus. Mohmand on the Swat. All three under construction simultaneously. This has never happened in Pakistan’s 78-year history. All three. Under construction. Right now. As you read this. Remember: Pakistan’s last big dam was Tarbela, completed in 1976. That’s a 50-year gap. Here are the numbers: combined installed capacity of 9,620MW. Total cost: Rs2.6 trillion. Dasu alone is 4,320MW. Diamer-Basha 4,500MW. Together, those two dams will double Pakistan’s entire existing hydropower capacity. Imagine: doubling the capacity. Pakistan has been talking about water storage since Ayub Khan. We have been holding seminars, forming committees, issuing white papers and passing resolutions for six decades. And now – finally, actually, physically – three mega-dams are being built at once. Ground reality: River Indus was successfully diverted at Dasu in February 2023 and at Diamer-Basha in December 2023 – a major construction milestone for both. Construction at Diamer-Basha is ongoing simultaneously across 13 work fronts, and RCC (roller-compacted concrete) work on the main dam body began in early 2026. Mohmand broke ground in 2019. The official completion targets are Dasu Stage 1 in 2026 and Diamer-Basha in 2028. Mohmand Dam remains on track for completion in 2026-27. This is not a press release. This is concrete. Steel. Tunnels. Diverted rivers. All visible from satellites above. Here’s why this matters so much: Pakistan currently faces a severe energy crisis – expensive imported fuel, frequent loadshedding and a circular debt problem in the power sector. These three dams together add roughly 9,620MW of clean, domestic hydropower, which could transform that situation fundamentally. Cold truth: Pakistan today stores 30 days of water. India stores 220 days. Complete all three dams – Basha, Dasu, Mohmand – and Pakistan reaches 45 days. Better. But still not enough. Remember: the 2022 floods caused over $30 billion in damage. Here’s the flood control dimension: Regulated water flow from these reservoirs provides a buffer that saves lives and protects crops every monsoon season. Once completed: Cheaper electricity, water security and flood resilience – all from one coordinated programme. Here are four major challenges to watch. First: funding gaps. The money pipeline is nowhere near consistent enough to match the ambition. The Rs2.6 trillion price tag also needs sustained financing Second: cost overruns. Diamer-Basha’s cost has already ballooned by 119 per cent due to redesigned seismic parameters, security requirements and rupee depreciation. Final bills will almost certainly exceed current estimates. Third: delays. Mohmand was originally due in 2024-25. These projects have a long history of missed deadlines. Fourth: resettlement of affected communities. Displacing thousands of families in remote, tribal areas like Gilgit-Baltistan and Mohmand district is politically sensitive and logistically complex, with Rs78.5 billion already committed just for resettlement support. This is genuinely exciting news for Pakistan. Will there be delays? Yes. Cost overruns? Certainly. Political interference? Inevitably. But here is what cannot be argued with: the Indus has been diverted. Three rivers are being tamed. Three dams are rising. The concrete is being poured. The tunnels are being drilled. In Pakistan, that alone is a revolution. thenews.pk/print/1417077-…

Reporter asks Tucker Carlson if Israel has a “right to exist.” Tucker flips her question and asks her to define what “right to exist” means Then it happened.

👏👏👏#Australia

As an Iranian woman who lived in Iran for 19 years, I grew up wanting to become a surgeon. I never once heard in Iran that surgery was “for men.” Ironically, the first time I heard certain STEM fields or specialties being treated as more suitable for men was after moving to the United States. Being this uninformed is surprising, Alice. It is irresponsible, unprofessional, and dehumanizing toward Iranian women. We are far more capable than what you see on your Twitter feed. Iran has serious issues involving women’s rights and legal restrictions, but presenting Iranian women as secluded figures who are barely allowed outside is a caricature closer to Taliban Afghanistan than reality. Iranian women are educated, visible, and active across society. The World Bank reports female youth literacy in Iran at about 99% for ages 15 to 24, which directly contradicts the image of women isolated from education or public life. According to the World Bank Gender Data Portal, women’s formal labor-force participation in Iran is low, around 13 to 14%, while men’s is around 67%. That gender gap is real. But labor-force participation only measures paid work or active job-seeking. Research also suggests women’s informal, family-based, agricultural, and unpaid work may be undercounted. Using that number to portray Iranian women as secluded or invisible locked up in their homes is misleading. If you want to discuss life for Iranian women, talk about how sanctions affect access to cancer diagnosis and treatment, including breast cancer care, since breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting Iranian women. Talk about how sanctions restrict livelihoods, increase economic pressure, and make it harder for men and women to find adequate jobs and build stable lives. Iranian women are strong and have spent decades fighting for themselves while building careers, movements, and communities. Reducing them to helpless, voiceless figures is ridiculous and unforgivable. #Woman_Life_Freedom #زن_زندگی_آزادی #از_دموکراسی_بگو

A rant goes 10x in Punjabi! Lovely stuff!

UNLESS NETANYAHU FKS IT UP, WE HAVE A DEAL! Biggest winners: Iran, Hezbollah Biggest losers: Israel, the U.S. TBA: The Gulf (Depends what the toll system will look like in the Strait of Hormuz) Note: Trump deserves credit for accepting the deal. He's facing significant pressure to continue the war. As I'ver said many times: Trump made a mistake getting into this war, but deserves credit if he walks away and does not get dragged back in. Also if Trump doesn't take the deal on the table now and decides to strike, then it is clear I was wrong and Netanyahu is calling the shots, not Trump

They interviewed the founder of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid, about his country's future. He said: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel. I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, and my grandson will drive a Land Rover, but my great-grandson will have to ride a camel again...” "Why?" “Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men, weak men create hard times. Many won't understand, but we need to raise warriors, not parasites

**No, that's not true.** Islam does not teach that Black people cannot go to heaven. The Quran (49:13) is explicit: people are judged by righteousness/piety, not race, tribe, or skin color. The Prophet Muhammad's farewell sermon reinforced this—no superiority of Arab over non-Arab, white over Black, etc. Bilal ibn Rabah, a Black Ethiopian former slave, was one of the first Muslims, a close companion of Muhammad, and the first muezzin (caller to prayer). He's revered in Islamic history as a symbol of equality. The video's claim twists metaphorical Quranic language (e.g., "black faces" on Judgment Day for shame/disbelief) and fringe/polemical interpretations. Mainstream Islamic doctrine bases paradise on faith, submission to God, and deeds—not race.

There should be no question about the fact that after "Operation Sindoor" Pakistan Armed Forces proved themselves to be the best and most capable armed forces in South Asia. Simply comparing GDPs does not show the true picture of a country's armed forces. Not only is Pakistan one of the few nuclear armed countries in the world today but despite its economic shortcomings it continues to punch beyond its weight, or shall we say it's true potential has not been fully utilised yet? The Government of Bangladesh remains committed to regional peace and security however the aggressive political theatrics in India has forced successive governments to reconsider their relationship with India. Today India poses a threat to regional peace and security, and the true narrative has to be set here. It is important to know that Pakistan is a true regional security guarantor. It boasts strategic umbilical ties with Superpower China, while maintaining useful strategic relations with the United States. It is therefore very important for Dhaka to utilise the high potential of ties with its "former self", that is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Also in question is the growing lack of professionalism among officers of the Indian armed forces. Not only are they engaged in various scandals, but they are also immersed in Hindu religious affiliations, which does not gel well with a diverse armed forces organisation long known for its professionalism. Dhaka and Islamabad need to move beyond history and engage in mutually beneficial relationship that can ensure regional stability. India must decide whether it wants to be the eternal enemy or a genuine regional partner of its neighbouring countries. Beijing, Dhaka and Islamabad are ONE today. Next Steps for Bangladesh: 1. PM Tarique Rahman visits China to broaden the strategic relationship including ensure further Chinese investment and transfer of technology in infrastructure and defence projects. 2. Pak PM and Field Marshal Munir visits Bangladesh to sign comprehensive defence agreement. @BDMOFA @PakinBangladesh @OfficialDGISPR @BDArmyOfficial @BangladeshNavyX @BDairforce @trahmanbnp #BDMilitary #Strategy #Geopolitics #Pakistan #Bangladesh #China #India #NationalSecurity #RegionalSecurity #Peace #MilitaryScience

It’s been said a million times already, but the docking scene in Interstellar (2014) still absolutely rules. Hans Zimmer’s score, McConaughey trying to manually match rotation while everything is seconds from exploding… pure adrenaline filmmaking.

اتنے عرصے سے آپ اور آپکا لیڈر مولانا فضل الرحمن صاحب کو گالیاں دیتے رہے جلسوں میں مذاق اڑاتے رہے اب مولانا کو جھپیاں ڈالتے شرم تو آتی ھو گی. سہیل وڑائچ ایسی کوئی بات نہیں ایک تو میرا تعلق تحریک انصاف جیسی بے شرم پارٹی سے ھے دوسرا میرے اڈیالہ والے لیڈر نے سکھایا ھے جب طاقت میں ھو تو گلے پڑو جب مشکل میں ھو تو پاؤں پڑو . سہیل آفریدی

Its a great tactic. In Malaysia, Mahatir had the same concept. To start development from the worst place of the city. Raja bazar was literally the most dirty, rushy and messy area of Rawalpindi. If that can be turned around; the entire city will be made amazing there on! No matter what happens in federal, give @MaryamNSharif 10 more years in punjab the great!

Let's plant more palm trees and cut the native ones

@RealAliVoice @allenanalysis It was never about illegal immigration. It's always been White Supremacy. It was all laid out for you in plain English in Project 2025. Your a few years behind my guy

Your brain has a circuit that doesn't know you live in a city. Its only job is to monitor whether birds are still singing. When they stop, something dangerous is nearby. When they continue, the coast is clear. This wiring predates primates. These kids are being sedated by the oldest safety signal in the mammalian nervous system. The Max Planck Institute tested this in 2022 with 295 participants. Six minutes of birdsong reduced anxiety and paranoia with medium effect sizes. Six minutes of traffic noise increased depression by the same margin. The effect worked on people who had never left dense urban environments. Their bodies responded to a signal their conscious minds had never learned. King's College London ran a larger study. 1,292 participants, real-time mood tracking through a phone app, 26,856 assessments over three years. Hearing or seeing birds improved mental wellbeing for up to eight hours afterward. The effect held for people diagnosed with depression. Trees, plants, and waterways didn't explain it. The birds themselves were the variable. Now here's where Italy connects to Finland. 95% of parents in the Finnish city of Oulu let their babies nap outside starting at two weeks old. A 2008 study confirmed the children took longer, deeper naps outdoors. Parents reported letting them sleep in temperatures as low as -15°C. 66% said their babies were more active afterward compared to indoor naps. The practice started as a public health initiative from Nordic maternity clinics in the early 1900s and became cultural infrastructure. The Italian kindergarten in this video is running the same program the Nordic countries have been running for a century. Outdoor naps, natural soundscapes, no white noise machines, no blackout curtains. Meanwhile, American kindergartens have been eliminating nap time entirely to squeeze in more instruction. A UMass study showed that children who skipped naps forgot 12% of what they learned that morning. The nap itself was the learning. The irony is that the countries spending the least on sleep technology for children are producing the best sleep outcomes. No sound machines. No apps. Just birds.

@RobertH_III That’s the whole point. Still managed better than the orange 🍊

Abraham Lincoln got shot in the head and still managed to keep the country together. Franklin Roosevelt ran the entire Second World War from a wheelchair. Eisenhower defeated Hitler and then, just to stay busy, built 48,000 miles of motorway. Kennedy looked at the moon, said “we’ll have that,” and inside a decade they did. Reagan stared down the Soviet Union until it simply gave up and went home. Two hundred and fifty years. Forty-six men. Men who stormed beaches, split atoms, faced down nuclear annihilation over breakfast and then filed sensible paperwork about it afterward. And then, after all of that, the entire accumulated weight of American history, the most consequential democratic experiment the world has ever seen, produced this. A television review. No Mars landing. No cure for cancer. No Soviet empire dissolved before lunch. Just a man in the White House, in the year 2026, informing the internet that a CBS chat show host had no talent. That is what 250 years of American greatness built. America should be deeply, permanently ashamed of itself. If you like what you read, follow Gandalv on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/gandalv

The Italian government is vetoing EU sanctions on Israel. So this is completely meaningless from the Italian prime minister 👇

Listen I already like him, you don’t have to keep selling me

برسوں پہلے لیجنڈ معین اختر نے ہماری کرکٹ ٹیم کی پے در پے شکستوں پہ یہ پروگرام کیا تھا اور آج بھی حالات ویسے ہی ہیں یا اس سے بھی بدتر