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United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” said on Monday that Israel needed to act immediately to help war-battered Gaza cope with impending winter, saying measures ahead of deadly floods had been insufficient.

“The situation no longer represents simply a threat posed by the approaching winter, but an immediate humanitarian emergency,” the Board of Peace said in a statement.

Heavy rain over the past two days has swept away tens of thousands of tents in the territory, where virtually the entire population has been displaced at least once, and killed at least five people, according to authorities in Gaza.

The Board of Peace, tasked with implementation of an October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire announced between Israel and Hamas, said it had been warning Israel, which controls all entry into the territory, of the need to prepare both for the winter and seasonal flooding.

Moments before the statement came out, the Israeli military claimed it had allowed more than 8,200 trucks to enter the Gaza Strip with supplies including 91,000 tents.

The Board of Peace acknowledged steps Israel said it took but noted that they remain “insufficient”.

“We call on the leadership of the current Government of Israel to act immediately to authorise and facilitate the entry of all necessary winterisation and humanitarian supplies,” it said.

Israel has taken a biting tone against Hamas over the floods, saying the group should have invested in infrastructure instead of weaponry.

“Hamas doesn’t get to escape responsibility every time it rains,” the Israeli foreign ministry posted on Sunday on X.

The Board of Peace also called on Hamas to abide by commitments under the ceasefire.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up nearly daily strikes in Gaza.

Israel’s relentless campaign prior to the so-called ceasefire killed over 74,000 Palestinians and has left it increasingly isolated on the world stage, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political survival following tight elections last month, has vowed to kill anyone involved in Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest day ever for Israel.

Source: dawn

An explosion ripped through a steel plant in western Turkiye on Monday, killing 16 people and injuring 13, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, announcing investigations into the tragedy.

Eight workers were trapped at the HABAS steel factory about 60 kilometres north of the port city of Izmir, where the blast struck around midday (2pm PKT), governor Suleyman Elban said.

Footage posted online showed a huge cloud of thick smoke pouring into the sky as flames appeared to engulf a tall structure within the HABAS Demir Celik plant in Aliaga.

“The circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, which has deeply saddened our nation, including how and why it happened, whether there was any negligence and who bears responsibility, will be established,” Erdogan said on television, adding that two of the injured were in serious condition.

HABAS is a privately owned group and one of Turkiye’s top steel producers.

Crane collapse

According to Izmir’s governor, the blast was caused by an overhead crane that collapsed into a large industrial furnace used during the liquid steel casting process.

“While a boiler replacement operation was being carried out at the HABAS iron and steel factory, the overhead crane fell and landed in the arc furnace, causing an explosion in the steel mill behind it,” Elban told reporters, referring to a large electric-powered steelmaking furnace.

An eyewitness, Deniz Ulker, said it felt like an “earthquake”.

“When I looked at the factory across the street, thick black smoke was coming out. A fire broke out where the chimney was,” Ulker told Anadolu news agency.

“It was like a bomb going off,” said Turan Ilbay, who works as a truck driver at the factory and also spoke to Anadolu.

Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay said on X that rescue teams were “continuing their work to remove the collapsed platform” and that those affected were factory workers.

Safety issues

Workers’ groups said there was a long record of safety issues at HABAS. Contacted by an AFP journalist, HABAS declined to answer questions.

Before Monday’s explosion, the Evrensel daily said at least 11 workers had died over the past decade while working there.

Turkiye’s Labour Party, a small Marxist faction, said on X it was the third time in three weeks that workers had lost their lives at HABAS.

It said one man died after falling eight metres from a ladder on Oct 21, while another died when a tyre he was inflating on a construction machine exploded.

Outside the hospital where the injured were taken, two representatives of the leftist Aegean Workers’ Collective were arrested while trying to make a statement about workplace safety issues, a group spokesman said.

“The HABAS management’s blind greed for profit has resulted in a major disaster today,” their spokesman Oktay Turk told AFP.

“Those responsible for this massacre must be brought to justice,” he said, calling for the immediate release of his colleagues.

The pro-Kurdish DEM party, in a statement, called the disaster “unacceptable”.

“The causes of the explosion, any possible negligence and lack of oversight must be revealed transparently, and no one responsible must go unpunished.”

Source: dawn

Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Monday expressed his determination to take Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “from terrorism to tourism” as carrier South Air launched another route from Peshawar to Lahore.

He made the remarks while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of South Air’s flight route between Peshawar’s Bacha Khan International Airport and Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, providing the public another domestic air option between the two cities.

The ceremony took place at the Peshawar airport, from where the inaugural flight — with Kundi on board — departed at 1:56pm.

Addressing the ceremony, Kundi announced that his administration “has begun working on T-to-T: from terrorism to tourism”.

KP has been under governor’s rule and emergency since Oct 11, when the federal government took the measures citing the PTI-led KP government’s “deliberate disengagement” from the counterterrorism fight.

“We have begun a journey to build an evolving, bright and strong Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Kundi said, adding that South Air would provide support in this objective.

“We will end terrorism and promote tourism,” Kundi affirmed, reiterating his pledge to eliminate terrorism in the province, which has been facing security challenges.

“This (T-to-T) can also mean from terrorism to trade; trade is very important,” he added.

The governor contended that the additional flight option will boost both trade and tourism as it reduces a 10-hour road trip to a one-hour journey.

“This is why we want connectivity in different cities, like Lahore, Quetta; in the future we will have connectivity with Chitral in the future as well,” Kundi said, adding that South Air had the KP government’s support.

The event was attended by South Air’s Chief Executive Officer Nishat Fatima, the joint secretary from the Ministry of Defence, KP MPAs, senior government and airport officials, and representatives of the business community.

“The commencement of the new service adds another air connectivity option to the domestic networks of PAA’s (Pakistan Airports Authority) airports, facilitating passengers travelling between Peshawar and Lahore,” read a handout by South Air.

It added that upon the plane’s landing in Lahore, Kundi was received by Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Provincial Minister for Specialised Healthcare Khawaja Salman Rafique and MPA Ramesh Kumar.

In a meeting on Sunday, Kundi and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Amjad Hussain had agreed to initiate negotiations to settle boundary disputes between the two regions and improve air connectivity.

The discussions focused on air links between Gilgit and Islamabad, where passengers have long faced difficulties because of limited flight operations and frequent cancellations.

During the meeting, representatives of South Air also held discussions with the GB chief minister regarding the introduction of additional air services.

In July, South Air launched services from Karachi to Quetta, via Turbat, and to Islamabad, via Bahawalpur, with inaugural flights departing from Jinnah International Airport.

Source: dawn

French officials on Monday accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of responsibility for the cyberattacks that knocked out commercial refrigerators and freezers across France last month, saying there would be consequences for Iran.

The hacks that struck hundreds of French supermarkets in early October were among the most disruptive cyberattacks of the Iran war that began in February, a conflict that has been marked by scattered incidents of alleged digital disruption. These have included hacks against the Los Angeles transit system in March, against US water treatment plants in July and against ships bound for the United States in August.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not return messages seeking comment. Iran routinely denies carrying out malicious cyber operations.

The French announcement was made only minutes after Reuters revealed that investigators privately suspected Iran of being behind the attacks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the Iranian ambassador had been summoned to France’s foreign ministry. Barrot also threatened further EU sanctions against Iran.

The Oct 11 cyberattack, which overrode the temperature controls on commercial fridges in hundreds of establishments, appeared to have been easy to pull off, cybersecurity experts previously told Reuters. The firm behind many of the stricken units said that several were obsolete or were running outdated firmware, which could have made it easy for hackers to break in.

The effects were still dramatic. Some refrigerators had the temperature turned up so high they caught fire. In the hours following the hack, supermarket employees carted boxes full of perished meat and melted ice cream into giant trash containers. The attack’s total costs could add up to tens of millions of euros nationwide, one French supermarket owner estimated.

Reuters could not establish exactly how the French made their determination.

The October hacks were followed this month by a second wave of hacking that hit more than 100 establishments across Europe and even affected refrigerators used by French blood banks, prompting employees there to have to move some of the blood to different cold storage units.

The seemingly straightforward nature of the refrigerator hacks and their repetition across multiple countries prompted speculation about who might be responsible amid ongoing concerns over Russia’s suspected sabotage campaign in Europe, the war between the US and Iran and the global rise of AI-powered cyberattacks.

US refrigerator attacks

The sabotage of European supermarket fridges was preceded by at least one similar incident in the United States.

In August, refrigerators in at least half a dozen military commissaries went out of commission. Pentagon investigators are treating the malfunctions as a suspected cyberattack and are working with French officials to get to the bottom of what happened, Reuters reported last month.

Reuters could not independently establish whether there was any link between the refrigeration incidents at US military bases in August, the hacking campaign in France and the more recent wave of refrigeration hacks that struck Europe.

A person familiar with the matter said that the Pentagon considers Iran a suspect in the August commissary hacks but that the investigation is still in progress.

Reuters could not establish how the military made its determination or whether it was also looking into other suspects. That the US military considers Iran a suspect in the commissary sabotage campaign was first reported last month by news website Nextgov.

The Pentagon said on Monday that it is “aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident” but that military investigators were on the case and it could not offer further comment for security reasons.

Source: dawn

United States President Donald Trump renewed baseless allegations of voter fraud Monday, questioning the legitimacy of last week’s midterm elections after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress in a crushing defeat for his Republican Party.

“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???” Trump wrote on Truth Social, alleging without evidence that large early voting “dumps” had made Republican victories impossible.

“It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” he added.

The accusations marked a sharp reversal from Trump’s initial acceptance of the results.

“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” he told The New York Times on election night.

The president has repeatedly made unfounded claims of election fraud, most notably following his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

In the Nov 3 midterm elections, Democrats seized control of the US Congress, capturing the Senate and House of Representatives in a stunning, nationwide rejection of Trump.

The result was a personal humiliation for the 80-year-old Trump, leaving him as a lame duck president for the remaining two years of his term and signalling an end to his stranglehold on the Republican Party.

He had previously attempted to brush off the election results, spending the beginning of his first public appearance on Wednesday talking to reporters about the marble and Corinthian columns of his new $400 million ballroom.

But he conceded that what Vice President JD Vance said about the Iran war being a factor was “largely true because it drove the gasoline up” — a key issue for voters angered by the rising cost of living.

Still, Trump defended his war against Iran, saying: “But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again. Because long term, it’s the only answer. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

On Sunday, Trump vowed to bounce back stronger from the midterm election loss that he called a “giant step back in history” for the US.

Source: dawn

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said on Monday that those who dared to “raise their hand against a helpless woman” would suffer the same fate.

“Dare to raise your hand against a helpless woman who leaves her home every day to earn an honest living, and be prepared to face the same humiliation. She will have the right and the opportunity to slap you back,” she said in a post on the social media platform X.

Her comments came in response to a video of a man physically assaulting a salesgirl. According to a statement from Faisalabad police on Monday, the incident took place at Kohinoor Plaza. It said the salesgirl had informed the man that the shop was exclusively meant for women; CCTV footage shared by police on X showed that it was a lingerie shop.

Police said the “enraged” man then physically assaulted the girl, with CCTV footage showing him yanking her from behind the counter and eventually throwing her to the ground. The statement added that the suspect had been arrested and legal proceedings had been initiated against him.

According to the information shared in a visual post by the Punjab chief minister, the incident took place on Nov 8. It added that the shop owner had come to the store to collect rent, when the girl asked him to leave as it was a lingerie shop and contact the business owner.

“No one, no matter how wealthy, influential, or powerful, can now intimidate, exploit or harm an ordinary citizen with impunity. The state will stand firmly with the vulnerable and respond decisively to those who misuse their power,” CM Maryam asserted on X, also sharing a video of the alleged victim hitting the suspect in question.

“The days of the powerful getting away with abusing the powerless are over. The state will hit back!” she said.

A first information report (FIR), available with Dawn, was filed on the woman’s complaint at the Madina Town police station on Monday.

It invoked Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

In the FIR, the woman said she was working as an employee as usual at a lingerie shop on Nov 8, when the shop’s owner came to receive the rent. The woman explained that the rent was paid in instalments on various dates, so she paid him Rs5,000 and asked him to seek the rest later.

She alleged that the man escalated the matter and “started arguing about taxes”, at which point she told him that as a mere employee, she did not have the authority to decide on tax-related matters and urged him to speak to the business owner.

The woman said the man “adopted extremely unethical and insulting behaviour” with her and threatened to slap her. Despite her repeatedly telling him to take up the matter with the owner, the man began physically assaulting her and kicked her, the FIR said.

Last month, CM Maryam also took notice of a man who physically assaulted a woman riding a scooty on Mozang Ring Road in Lahore.

At the time, she said he had spoken to the victim and told her “she should slap the man as many times as he had slapped her”.

“But she said that, for her, it was enough that the government had made her feel protected, cared for, and assured that justice was on her side,” CM Maryam said. She had later also expressed displeasure at the suspect being granted bail.

In a similar incident last month, a man was accused of assaulting a petrol pump employee in Lahore. CM Maryam then shared a video of the employee slapping the arrested suspect while a cop attempted to stop him.

“This is a tight slap in the face of those entitled, spoiled brats who look down upon the poor as if they were lesser human beings,” CM Maryam said.

“They arrogantly believe that money and power put them above the law, allowing them to exploit, intimidate, and act with impunity,” she added.

The chief minister declared that she stood “firmly with the oppressed, regardless of how powerful their oppressors may be”.

Source: dawn

Tech executive Alice Huang is the woman accused of spying for China during an affair with Jensen Huang, head of US artificial intelligence chip titan Nvidia, according to media reports.

Public details are sparse about the woman, also known as Huang Le, who had reportedly been a top figure at a Singapore-based data centre company called Megaspeed International.

Here is what we know about her and the company.

Who is Alice Huang?

Alice Huang is a Chinese citizen recruited by Beijing to collect intelligence on the Nvidia boss, according to The New York Times, which first reported that Jensen Huang was the alleged target of a spy plot.

Despite their shared surname, Alice Huang is no relation to the 63-year-old Taiwan-born head of the world’s most valuable company.

The Times, citing people briefed on the surveillance, said that Alice Huang speaks good English and is well connected at the highest level of the global AI chip industry.

The sector is highly sensitive as the United States and China race to develop advanced AI systems with potential military applications.

An online search brought up a short profile for Alice Huang, with her photo, on a Chinese fund database. It listed previous jobs, including at HSBC Bank and as a reporter for Chinese media outlets CCTV and Hunan TV.

AFP was unable to verify the contents of the profile or who had written it, but has attempted to contact the companies cited.

How are the pair connected?

Media reports last week said they had a close relationship, and Jensen Huang told Nvidia employees on Nov 8 that he was “deeply sorry” for being “unfaithful to my wife”.

One photo from an industry party in 2024, posted on LinkedIn, appears to show the leather jacket-clad Nvidia boss sitting next to a long-haired woman in glitzy jewellery believed to be Alice Huang.

The following year, they both attended a dinner hosted by Jensen Huang at a Chinese restaurant in Taiwan during Computex, the island’s top tech expo.

Journalists stood outside the restaurant filming through glass windows and doors as Jensen Huang and a woman identified as Alice Huang, who was wearing a pink dress, mingled with other attendees.

At one point, Jensen Huang can be seen putting his arm around Alice Huang as she kisses him on the right cheek, press live streams show.

Alice Huang is also seen following the Nvidia chief as he re-enters the restaurant after talking to journalists outside, running her fingers down his lower back.

They later leave the restaurant in the same car.

What is Megaspeed?

US officials concluded in 2025 that Alice Huang was targeting Jensen Huang as a spy, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

At the time, Alice Huang was said to be a top executive at data centre firm Megaspeed International, which rents out computing power to other companies to train and run AI.

Megaspeed’s website says it is “a core business partner of Nvidia’s computing power cloud business in the Asia-Pacific region”.

On LinkedIn, it says it has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, with around two to 10 employees and 25 “associated members”.

When AFP called the number listed on Megaspeed’s website, the person who answered said they were unfamiliar with the company and that the number was a residential line.

The firm was previously called 7Road International, according to the Singapore Government’s website, suggesting links to the Chinese gaming company 7Road.

Has Megaspeed helped China evade US restrictions on chips?

Washington restricts the export to China of Nvidia’s most cutting-edge silicon chips, citing national security concerns but also seen as a measure to stay ahead in AI.

The New York Times said the US government had been probing Megaspeed since 2024 over its potential steering of Nvidia chips to China.

The company has also reportedly been under investigation by the Singapore authorities, who, The Times says, questioned Alice Huang in 2025.

AFP has contacted Singapore’s police and the Home Affairs Ministry for comment.

In 2025, Bloomberg News also reported on the Singaporean probe into Megaspeed over the alleged smuggling of Nvidia chips to China.

In December 2025, Megaspeed said Bloomberg’s reporting “contains misleading information and incorrect insinuations, including suggestions that we may have been involved in illegal chip transfers”.

Source: dawn