������Ƶ

GILGIT: A massive mudslide early Monday killed seven volunteers as they repaired a drainage channel damaged by flash floods in northern Pakistan, officials said, leaving three others injured.
Rescuers recovered the bodies after the mudslide hit the town of Danyor in Gilgit-Baltistan at dawn and transported the injured to a hospital, said Faizullah Faraq, a regional government spokesperson.
This came a day after a flash flood triggered by a glacial lake outburst damaged the key Karakoram Highway, which passes through Danyor, disrupting traffic and trade between Pakistan and China. Engineers and workers were deployed along with heavy machinery to start repairs, Faraq said Monday.
Meanwhile, several landslides near the damaged mountainous highway left homes damaged in Danyor and nearby areas as first responders evacuated those affected by the floods to safer areas, said Hassan Ali, a local police chief, adding that essential foods were being provided to those displaced.
Sunday’s glacial lake outburst was huge, Ali said, swelling the Hunza river and triggering flash flooding that battered crops. Authorities were still assessing the damage, he said.
The region’s Chief Minister Gulbar Khan called the seven who died “heroes who sacrificed their lives for the community” in a statement Monday.
Gilgit-Baltistan is known for its scenic glaciers that provide 75 percent of the country’s stored water supply, according to the region’s official website. Last month, it was hit by landslides, killing 18 tourists when flash floods swept away their vehicles.
Experts say glacial lake outburst floods occur when water dammed by a glacier is suddenly released, often because ice or debris barriers collapse. Scientists say rising temperatures linked to climate change are accelerating glacier melt in Pakistan’s northern mountains, increasing both the size and number of these lakes.
A study released last week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall from June 24 to July 23 was 10 percent to 15 percent heavier because of global warming. Pakistan produces less than 1 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, but research shows it suffers disproportionately from extreme weather.
In 2022, its worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.
Rains and floods since June 26 have killed more than 300 people across Pakistan.

NEW DELHI: From McDonald’s and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, US-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against US tariffs.
India, the world’s most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels seen as symbols of moving up in life. India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta’s WhatsApp and Domino’s has more restaurants than any other brand in the country.

Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts. Although there was no immediate indication of sales being hit, there’s a growing chorus both on social media and offline to buy local and ditch American products after Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on goods from India, rattling exporters and damaging ties between New Delhi and Washington.
McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters queries.
Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of India’s Wow Skin Science, took to LinkedIn with a video message urging support for farmers and startups to make “Made in India” a “global obsession,” and to learn from South Korea whose food and beauty products are famous worldwide.
“We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don’t own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country,” he said.
Rahm Shastry, CEO of India’s DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: “India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB — like China has.” To be fair, Indian retail companies give foreign brands like Starbucks stiff competition in the domestic market, but going global has been a challenge. Indian IT services firms, however, have become deeply entrenched in the global economy, with the likes of TCS and Infosys providing software solutions to clients world over.
On Sunday, Modi made a “special appeal” for becoming self-reliant, telling a gathering in Bengaluru that Indian technology companies made products for the world but “now is the time for us to give more priority to India’s needs.” He did not name any company.
Even as anti-American protests simmer, Tesla launched its second showroom in India in New Delhi, with Monday’s opening attended by Indian commerce ministry officials and US embassy officials.
The Swadeshi Jagran Manch group, which is linked to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, took out small public rallies across India on Sunday, urging people to boycott American brands.
“People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify,” Ashwani MaHajjan, the group’s co-convenor, told Reuters. “This is a call for nationalism, patriotism.”
He also shared with Reuters a table his group is circulating on WhatsApp, listing Indian brands of bath soaps, toothpaste and cold drinks that people could choose over foreign ones.
On social media, one of the group’s campaigns is a graphic titled “Boycott foreign food chains,” with logos of McDonald’s and many other restaurant brands.
In Uttar Pradesh, Rajat Gupta, 37, who was dining at a McDonald’s in Lucknow on Monday, said he wasn’t concerned about the tariff protests and simply enjoyed the 49-rupee ($0.55) coffee he considered good value for money.
“Tariffs are a matter of diplomacy and my McPuff, coffee should not be dragged into it,” he said.