Monday, May 4th, 2026
CENTCOM commander says US military destroyed six Iranian boats after attacks
WASHINGTON, MAY 4: The top US military general for the Middle East said Monday that Iran had tried to open at US Navy ships and commercial vessels this morning before his forces returned fire. Six small Iranian boats were destroyed by United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, Adm. Brad Cooper said. Cooper, the CENTCOM chief, said 15,000 US servicemembers were involved in “Project Freedom,” which the Trump administration launched today to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian missiles and drones were launched by the IslamicRead More
Reimagining CSS II: Normalization, Redundancy, and the Illusion of Merit
AUTHOR: S Shujahat Ali, Civil Services of Pakistan, Fulbright Scholar If opportunity cost is the unseen tax on CSS aspirants, then poor measurement is its silent accomplice which confuses noise for signal. Consider this: should a score of 80 in a regional language carry the same weight as 60 in Economics or Applied Mathematics? The answer, intuitively, is no. These subjects differ not only in difficulty but also in grading standards, evaluator subjectivity, and intellectual demands. Yet the current CSS rules of different optional subjects carrying same weights regardless ofRead More
Trump threatens to ‘blow Iran off face of the Earth’ if US vessels attacked
WASHINGTON, MAY 4: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if US vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz during an interview with FOX News on Monday. “We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” Trump said. “We have the best equipment. We have stuff all over the world. We have these bases all over the world. They’re all stocked up with equipment. We can use all of that stuff, and we will, ifRead More
Indian nationals injured as Iranian missiles hit UAE
UAE intercepts missiles fired from Iran as emergency warnings issued; a cargo ship caught fire off the UAE coast on Monday, with the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center announcing the ship had caught fire News Desk/DNA DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates said on Monday its air defense systems had responded to four missiles fired from Iran, with its Ministry of Defense confirming three of them had been intercepted while a fourth fell into the sea. As many as three Indian nationals were injured in Iranian missile attacks.Read More
Free mango protection bags to boost exports
M Atif Ismail MULTAN, May 04: Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company on Monday announced the distribution of 150,000 mango protection bags to farmers this season, aiming to improve export-quality production and expand access to European markets. Officials said the initiative will help growers meet international standards,particularly in Europe by protecting the fruit from fruit flies and other harmful pests. The use of protection bags also reduces reliance on chemical sprays,enabling the production of safer,organic-quality mangoes suitable for high-end export markets. Under this federal government-backed project, Pakistani mangoes were expectedRead More
US says it has missile destroyers in Gulf, two American ships have crossed Hormuz
WASHINGTON, MAY 4: The US military said two US Navy guided-missile destroyers had entered the Gulf to break an Iranian blockade and that two US ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran said it had prevented a US warship entering the Gulf. US Central Command said its forces were supporting President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom,” which aims to “guide out” commercial ships stranded in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and were enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports. The intervention appeared to raise the risk ofRead More