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    Overnight missile barrage on Kyiv region kills 17,…

    ByJustpaste.in

    Russia launched a large scale missile assault on Kyiv and the surrounding region on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and leveling warehouses belonging to major retail chains, according to Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv’s dwindling stock of air defence interceptors leaves the capital increasingly exposed. Explosions tore through the region overnight, lighting up the sky above the Ukrainian capital, which has faced missile attacks roughly every three to four days in recent weeks as Moscow has ramped up its aerial campaign. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram that ballistic missile interceptors could have prevented the deaths recorded on Wednesday, calling on Ukraine’s international partners to replenish the country’s interceptor stocks. He said shipments of air defence missiles have arrived at only a third of the pace seen in 2025. Ukraine’s air force said its defences shot down close to 90 percent of the 115 drones Russia launched but failed to stop any of the 24 ballistic missiles or four Zircon cruise missiles fired during the same assault. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces struck seven logistics centres in Kyiv and the wider region, claiming the sites were used to store or move dual use goods and drone components. Ukraine has struggled for months with a shortage of interceptor missiles for its US supplied Patriot systems, currently the only weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles traveling at many times the speed of sound. Since the outbreak of the Iran war in February, Patriot interceptors originally intended for Ukraine have instead gone to the US military and its Gulf allies. Russia has used the opening to intensify ballistic strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities even as its ground advances have slowed markedly this year. Officials said the attack injured more than 40 people in addition to those killed. At a commuter rail station in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, rescue workers found seven bodies scattered across the platform, with an eighth victim discovered nearby in nearby bushes. Volodymyr Bigun, head of the local administration in Brovary, said residents had missed their last train home when the strike hit, and confirmed eight deaths in the district so far. He said five logistics warehouses sustained damage there, including one belonging to food retailer Fozzy, and accused Russian forces of continuing to target civilian infrastructure. Both Russia and Ukraine have consistently denied targeting civilians throughout the war, which began with Russia’s full scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine has continued striking back at Russian territory as part of its own campaign, hitting a logistics hub belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Tula region overnight, adding to more than a dozen similar facilities Kyiv has damaged in recent operations. Epicentr, Ukraine’s largest home improvement retail chain, said two major logistics facilities and a manufacturing plant were destroyed within minutes during Wednesday’s strikes, and that it was still working to determine the full extent of the damage. The company described the attack as a deliberate effort to undermine Ukrainian manufacturing, logistics, employment and the broader capacity to recover from the war. Food retailer Silpo said on social media that at least six of its employees died in the strikes and that two of its distribution centres caught fire. Iryna Chechotkina, co founder of the online retailer Rozetka, said she watched overnight as three ballistic missiles destroyed years of work, describing the experience as devastating while stressing that her company remains operational. Ukraine’s economy has shown considerable resilience over more than four years of war, sustained in part by billions of dollars in financial support from Western governments, but business losses have mounted this year as strikes on commercial infrastructure have grown more frequent. The Kyiv regional military administration said Wednesday’s attack damaged 13 warehouses, a manufacturing facility, four private homes and dozens of vehicles. Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi, who took office last month following a government reshuffle, said officials would hold an emergency meeting with business leaders to determine how to keep logistics and trade operations running smoothly. Kyiv has renewed its request for additional PAC-3 interceptors, the newest generation of Patriot missile. Separately, the United States is continuing talks that would allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically, according to four people familiar with the discussions, even after President Donald Trump expressed skepticism about such an arrangement.

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    Saba Hameed’s double role as mom and wife sparks confusion

    ByJustpaste.in

    Saba Hameed continues to prove her versatility as an actor, appearing in more projects than most of her peers. Her latest casting choices, though, have left fans and colleagues puzzled. In ARY Digital’s Bas Tera Saath Ho, now 28 episodes deep, Saba portrays the wife of the male lead’s uncle, played by Faran Tahir. Around the same time, she plays the mother of the female lead’s father in Dar-e-Nijaat, another ARY production, again opposite Tahir. She is essentially his wife in one show and his mother in another, with both airing simultaneously. Content creator K Khan raised the issue in an Instagram reel on Monday. He questioned how the makers of Dar-e-Nijaat decided she suited the role of Tahir’s mother, given that she plays his spouse elsewhere on the same channel. Actor Zhalay Sarhadi weighed in through the comments, arguing that only women seem to age in Pakistani show business, while men remain perpetually youthful on screen. She said the industry keeps reinforcing this outdated mindset, even as attitudes shift elsewhere in the world. Sarhadi called for better, more realistic roles written for female actors, and joked she might soon end up playing Humayun Saeed’s mother if the trend continues. Atiqa Odho voiced similar frustration on her show Kya Drama Hai, posted to YouTube on Tuesday. She praised the overall cast but admitted she could not understand the casting logic behind Hameed’s role. She added that Hameed’s look in the part felt unconvincing, since she does not resemble a grandmother. Not everyone agreed. TV host Juggun Kazim defended the casting, calling it proof of Hameed’s exceptional range as a performer. She said Hameed has a rare gift for making audiences forget she is acting and fully believe each character. This is not the first time ageism has stirred debate in Pakistani television. Atiqa herself was previously targeted over remarks about her appearance. Critics often point out that male actors in their 40s still land lead roles as young men, such as Fahad Mustafa in Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum, frequently paired with much younger actresses. Women of similar age, meanwhile, are routinely pushed into roles as mothers or older relatives, underscoring a persistent double standard in casting across the industry.

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    Female UEFA officials lead pushback against Infantino amid FIFA turmoil

    ByJustpaste.in

    Two women sitting on UEFA’s executive committee have become the most visible faces of opposition to FIFA President Gianni Infantino as he confronts the toughest test of his ten years leading world football’s governing body, raising fresh questions about whether the sport is ready for female leadership at the top. Laura McAllister of Wales and Lise Klaveness of Norway, the only two women on UEFA’s executive committee, have taken outspoken public stances against Infantino during a crisis triggered by the collapse of his plan to push through a private equity backed venture called FIFA Football Enterprises. The backlash against that failed proposal has opened up a broader conversation about whether football, an industry historically run by men, could realistically be led by a woman. McAllister, who serves as a UEFA vice president, told a foreign news agency that seeing a woman elected FIFA president would be a welcome development, though she cautioned that the path there remains complicated. “I’d like to think we’re not far off having a female president,” she said, adding that she worries football still lags behind broader social progress on gender. The conversation gained additional traction after former FIFA President Sepp Blatter publicly said this week that the time had come for a woman to lead the organization, singling out Klaveness for praise. McAllister welcomed the sentiment but pushed back on the idea that installing a female president would be straightforward. She said a woman could well be the strongest candidate available, but stressed that FIFA’s global politics do not operate as a simple meritocracy. Her comments follow the unraveling of Infantino’s FFE plan, which fell apart after UEFA and several other regional federations mounted fierce resistance. Wales became the first national association to publicly withdraw its backing for Infantino’s re election bid, and opposition quickly spread through other parts of FIFA’s membership. Infantino was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Morocco on Wednesday as the fallout continued. McAllister, whose call for national associations to boycott FIFA events won unanimous backing at UEFA’s emergency meeting last week, said the current unrest points to governance failures that run deeper than any single controversy. She said the organization appears to be approaching a genuine crisis point, if it has not reached one already. She cited a string of episodes that have chipped away at confidence in Infantino’s leadership, including FIFA’s connections to the failed European Super League proposal, political controversies tied to the World Cup, and the federation’s decision to overturn a red card issued to American forward Folarin Balogun after President Donald Trump publicly urged Infantino to revisit the call. McAllister said these incidents collectively point to serious flaws in how FIFA governs itself. She framed the standoff as a fight to preserve football’s core principles, tracing her outlook and Klaveness’s back to their shared history as international players for their respective countries before they moved into administrative careers, Klaveness as a lawyer and McAllister as a political scientist. She said both are driven by a strong sense of values, warning that football risks losing its essential character if those values slip away. She added that women in the sport sometimes bring a clearer focus on football’s fundamental purpose rather than getting absorbed in its business side, arguing the game belongs to everyone, from grassroots participants to elite professionals, spanning wealthy and poor countries alike, and should remain free from private capital control or political interference. Only 10 of FIFA’s 211 member associations currently have a woman at the helm, Klaveness among them. Any serious bid for the FIFA presidency would require support stretching well beyond Europe, and McAllister urged patience rather than a rushed push for female leadership. She said building momentum gradually often proves more effective than trying to force rapid change. Michael Payne, a former marketing director at the International Olympic Committee, said football’s governing bodies have historically trailed other sports when it comes to advancing women into leadership positions. He drew a contrast with the IOC, now led by Kirsty Coventry, noting that the Olympic movement has spent roughly two decades pursuing gender equity and has reached full parity between male and female athletes at the Games, a benchmark football’s World Cup has yet to meet. The dispute over FIFA’s direction reflects broader tensions playing out across international sports governance, where longstanding institutions face growing pressure to modernize leadership structures and diversify decision making bodies that have remained largely unchanged for decades. As football’s global profile continues to expand, the question of who holds power at its highest levels, and how that power gets exercised, appears likely to remain a central point of contention well beyond the current crisis surrounding Infantino’s leadership.