Magazine legend Anna Wintour is stepping down as editor of fashion bible US Vogue after 37 years in the post, US media reported on Thursday.
British-born Wintour, 75, has been one of the most influential and formidable figures in fashion and magazine journalism for decades, famous for her ever-present sunglasses and unchanging bob haircut.
She was widely seen as the inspiration behind The Devil Wears Prada, a hit 2003 novel and 2006 movie, in which the role of a tyrannical magazine editor was played by Meryl Streep.
Wintour, who took the helm at US Vogue in 1988, announced her departure at a staff meeting, but she will stay on as group owner Conde Nast’s global chief content officer and as editorial director at Vogue, People magazine reported.
Several other publications also reported this news.
Wintour, who held the title of Vogue’s editor-in-chief, was made a British dame in 2017 and in February this year was made a companion of honour, joining a select group never numbering more than 65 recognised for major contributions in their field.
At the ceremony in London in February, she removed her trademark sunglasses to receive the award and said she had told King Charles III that she had no plans to stop working.
Wintour, who was raised in the UK by a British father and an American mother, is described by many as the single most powerful person in the global fashion industry.
Her choice of covers for the monthly magazine was seen as authoritative in the publication’s heyday, and she was renowned for her strict control over content, sometimes axing work without discussion.
A 2015 documentary about her life pointed to her ice queen image and steely ambition, but also revealed her warmer side.
At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighbourhood of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, health authorities and security sources said.
It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December.
Syria’s interior ministry said the suicide bomber was a member of Islamic State. “He entered the church, opened fire and then detonated his explosive vest,” a ministry statement added.
A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two men were involved in the attack, including the one who blew himself up.
Islamic State has been behind several attempted attacks on churches in Syria since Assad’s fall, but this was the first to succeed, another security source told Reuters.
Syria’s state news agency cited the health ministry as saying that 52 people were also injured in the blast.
A livestream from the site by Syria’s civil defence, the White Helmets, showed scenes of destruction from inside the church, including a bloodied floor and shattered pews and masonry.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the offensive against Assad before taking over in January for a transitional phase, has repeatedly said he will protect minorities.
“We unequivocally condemn the abhorrent terrorist suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, Syria,” the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We demand that the Syrian transitional authorities take immediate action to hold those involved accountable and implement measures to guarantee the safety of Christian communities and all religious groups, allowing them to live without fear.”
Islamic State had previously targeted religious minorities, including a major attack on Shia pilgrims in Sayeda Zainab in 2016 — one of the most notorious bombings during Assad’s rule.
The latest assault underscores the group’s continued ability to exploit security gaps despite the collapse of its territorial control and years of counterterrorism efforts.
At least eight people were killed on Saturday when a hot air balloon with 21 passengers caught fire in southern Brazil, said the governor of Santa Catarina state, where the incident occurred.
“Eight fatalities and 13 survivors,” Governor Jorginho Mello said on X.
Videos taken by bystanders and carried on Brazilian television showed the moment when the balloon erupted in flames above the coastal town of Praia Grande. The weather conditions were clear. The basket carrying the passengers plummeted dozens of meters to the ground in flames.
“We still have no information” about the condition of the survivors, a spokeswoman for Santa Catarina firefighters told AFP.
Praia Grande, on the Atlantic coast, is a popular destination for hot-air ballooning in Brazil.
The survivors were being treated in area hospitals, firefighters said. An investigation was launched to determine the cause of the accident.
“I want to express my solidarity with the families of the victims,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a statement.
The pilot told officials that the fire was sparked by a blowtorch in the basket, Tiago Luiz Lemos, a police official in Praia Grande, told local media.
The pilot tried to bring the balloon down as soon as the fire erupted, “and once it was close to the ground, he told the passengers to jump from the basket. But some of them couldn’t do it and the fire grew,” the official said.
One witness told the Razao newspaper that he saw “two people falling, they were on fire, the basket broke off and the balloon fell”.
It was the second fatal balloon accident in the country in just a few days. Less than a week ago, a woman died during a ride in southeastern Sao Paulo state.
Roughly one month ago, from the stage at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iran that would prove prophetic.
“We’ll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack,” Trump told the crowd, sending a message to the leadership in Tehran.
“The time is right now for them to choose. Right now. We don’t have a lot of time to wait. Things are happening at a very fast pace.”
That May 13 ultimatum received little attention at the time.
But behind the scenes, the president already knew an attack on Iran could be imminent — and that there might be little he could do to stop it, according to two US officials.
By mid-May, the Pentagon had begun drawing up detailed contingency plans to aid Israel if it followed through on its long-held ambition to strike Iran’s nuclear programme, the officials said. And the US had already diverted thousands of defensive weapons away from war-torn Ukraine toward the Middle East in preparation for potential conflict, according to a Western source familiar with the matter and a Ukrainian source.
The Pentagon declined to comment for this story.
This account of the weeks and days leading up to Trump’s decision to throw his support behind Israel’s bombing campaign is based on interviews with over a dozen administration officials, foreign diplomats and Trump confidantes, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The picture that emerges is that of a long, secretive preparation process and a president who, for weeks, found himself torn between diplomacy and supporting military action — and was ultimately persuaded in part by an ally whose actions he did not fully control.
While Trump has long described himself as a peacemaker — dispatching Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to the region several times to try to seal a diplomatic accord — he had several trusted political allies pushing him to back an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
And US intelligence had indicated a unilateral Israeli strike was possible, even likely, even if Trump wanted to wait, according to two US officials.
While it is unclear if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Trump’s more hawkish allies ever got him to a “yes” to Israel’s plans, by the days leading up to the strike, he was at least not a “no”, according to two senior US officials and a senior Israeli source.
That stance, people familiar with the dynamics said, helped tip Israel into action.
Seven days into the Israel-Iran conflict, Trump is left with a dilemma, said Aaron David Miller, a veteran diplomat who has advised six secretaries of state on Middle East policy.
He can try again to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran, allow Iran and Israel “to fight it out” or he can enter the war with US airstrikes on the deeply buried Fordow enrichment plant, a step that would have unknown consequences for the region.
Trump “let it (the Israeli attack) happen”, said Miller. “He got on the tiger and he’s riding it.”
The White House, the Israeli prime minister’s office and Iran’s delegation to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. Tehran has consistently said its nuclear programme is designed for peaceful purposes only, a conclusion Washington has rejected.
One of the first hints that Trump might sign off on an Israeli bombing campaign came in April.
During a closed-door meeting on April 17, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian: Take Trump’s offer to negotiate an agreement seriously because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.
Reuters could not determine whether the message was sent at Washington’s behest, nor whether Iran’s leaders took that message seriously.
With hindsight, they should have.
The Israel Defence Forces and the head of US Central Command, General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, were discussing detailed intelligence about Iran’s missile buildup and nuclear programme and steps that could be required to defend US troops and Israel itself in any conflict with Iran, according to a US official and senior Israeli official.
Meanwhile, the US was funnelling weapons to Israel that would be useful for an air war with Iran. In one instance in early May, a large shipment of defensive missiles originally meant for Ukraine was diverted to Israel instead, according to the Western source and the Ukrainian source.
The diverted shipment caused consternation in Kyiv and sparked continued fears that additional weapons needed to defend against Moscow will instead be used to defend US interests elsewhere, the Ukrainian source said.
In the opening months of Trump’s term, Israel had already proposed to Washington a series of options to attack Iran’s facilities, according to sources.
While Trump had rebuffed those ideas, saying he preferred diplomacy for the time being, several people close to him said he was never dead-set against using military force against Iran.
He had done so before. In 2020, despite a foreign policy during his first term that was otherwise marked by restraint, Trump ordered a drone strike that killed major general Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ division responsible for its international operations.
The Iranian government has since sought to murder Trump in revenge, US prosecutors have said, an allegation Tehran denies.
Behind the scenes, Trump had been pulled in multiple directions on the Iran issue since before he even took office.
On one side, many supporters, including conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, and administration officials saw Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as an antidote to decades of foreign wars that cost thousands of American lives without significantly advancing American interests.
On the other hand, several close Trump allies — from conservative commentator Mark Levin to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham — were portraying a nuclear Iran as an existential threat that must be removed at any cost.
Trump himself took pride in being a broker of peace.
“My proudest legacy,” he said during his inauguration address, “will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”
Ultimately, no US official, Trump confidante or diplomat Reuters talked to identified an epiphany that tipped the scales for the president.
One senior administration official said that after months of sitting on the fence, a lack of diplomatic progress, a push from the Israelis and appeals by hawkish allies likely wore him down.
Trump aides and allies have noted that Israel’s attack unfolded just after the expiry of a 60-day deadline the Trump administration had set for a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran.
The senior US official said another dynamic was at play: as US intelligence consistently showed Israel might go ahead with an attack with or without US support, the administration could look caught off guard if they did not get behind it. Worse, it could appear that the US was opposing a longtime ally.
Although Trump had appeared to some to snub Netanyahu as he pushed for a peaceful solution to the crisis, privately, Israel understood that Washington would stand by it, said a separate official.
By the time Trump talked to Netanyahu on Monday, June 9 — one of many phone calls in recent days — his stance was one of tacit, if not explicit approval, according to one US and one Israeli official.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had said he would like more time to see diplomacy play out. But the US official said that he did not explicitly veto Israel’s plans.
By Wednesday, June 11, it was clear to Washington that Israel’s plans were a go.
That day, Reuters reported that the US was preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy amid fears of reprisals from Iran following an imminent attack.
The next day, June 12, Washington sent a formal diplomatic note to several regional allies, warning them that an attack was imminent.
That evening, Israel launched its overnight barrage, an attack that almost immediately escalated into an air war.
Trump and some key cabinet members watched the events live from the wood-panelled “JFK room” part of the White House Situation Room. Other officials watched the events nearby.
On the menu, per one official: stone crabs from a local restaurant.
The initial attack appeared to be a success, with several close advisers to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei killed and key nuclear sites seriously damaged. Over the weekend, the Israelis considered killing Khamenei himself, but were waved off by Trump, according to two US officials.
Almost immediately, a political civil war erupted in Trump’s Republican Party, with several high-profile conservatives, including members of Congress, accusing his administration of fanning the flames of war.
Seven days on, the US intelligence community believes the strikes have set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by only months, according to a source familiar with US intelligence reports, confirming a CNN report.
A significant blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, most analysts say, will require dropping bunker-busting bombs on the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, the crown jewel of Iran’s nuclear programme. Only the US has that capability.
Trump has said he is considering such a strike, which would represent a major escalation for the US.
As of Thursday, his intentions were still unclear.
The Finance Division on Sunday night notified hefty increases in the prices of both petrol and diesel, with the rates climbing by Rs4.80 and Rs7.95 per litre, respectively.
According to a notification seen by Dawn.com, the finance division stated that the new prices had been determined “based on the recommendations of Ogra (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) and the relevant ministries”.
From July 16, high-speed diesel (HSD), which previously cost Rs254.64 per litre, will now be sold for Rs262.59.
Similarly, petrol, which cost Rs253.63 per litre, will now be available for Rs258.43.
Previous estimates suggested that petrol and diesel prices would increase by about Re1 and Rs5 per litre, respectively, for the next fortnight, owing to higher international market prices.
Based on existing tax rates, informed sources said that the ex-depot price of petrol was estimated to go up by about Re1 per litre depending on final calculation on June 15, followed by a Rs5 per litre increase in HSD.
Earlier this week, under an iron-clad commitment with the International Monetary Fund, the government announced the imposition of Rs77 per litre petroleum levy and Rs5 per litre carbon levy on furnace oil and Rs2.5 per litre charge on petrol and diesel from July 1.
Police found the body of a young man on Saturday near Karachi University’s Teachers Society.
Sachal Station House Officer Aurangzeb Khattak told Dawn.com that the body of a man in his mid-20s was recovered from bushes outside the wall of the society near Super Highway.
“The victim sustained injuries to his head,” he added.
Khattak highlighted the possibility that he might have been thrown there by suspects travelling in a car.
He also said that the body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where his identity could not be ascertained immediately.
Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn.com that although the victim was in the advanced stage of decomposition, there were head injuries.
“The cause of death was a head injury,” Dr Syed said, adding that samples had been collected.
Earlier this year, Mustafa Amir, a 23-year-old youth, was kidnapped and allegedly murdered by his friends in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA). According to the police, the youth’s friends stuffed his body in the trunk of his car and torched it in the Hub area of Balochistan.
In Feb, police arrested Armaghan Qureshi, the prime suspect, for injuring officers while resisting his detention. His friend Sheraz aka Shavez Bukhari was remanded by an ATC.
Armaghan was sent to prison in March after he refused to record his confessional statement while a magistrate observed that the suspect was not in stable condition to record his confession.
One of the main suspects of a double child murder case drowned after jumping into a river as he was fleeing custody in Punjab’s Hafizabad district on Wednesday, according to the police.
Two boys were found dead in a metal trunk of a house after both went missing in Kassoki village of Hafizabad district. Two uncles of one of the deceased boys, and their three accomplices, were among the suspects and police had arrested two of them.
Police had registered a case against four nominated and two unidentified suspects and started an investigation.
Hafizabad Crime Control Department (CCD) Deputy Superintendent of Police Ijaz Ahmed told Dawn.com today that one of the uncles was in CCD custody when the incident occurred. “The suspect drowned and his dead body was later recovered from the canal,” he added.
The first information report (FIR) of the incident was registered at Hafizabad’s Kasoki Police Station on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Ali Kamran under Section 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“During an interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime, saying that he had physically tortured the victims with a wooden bat,” the FIR said, adding that he hid the bat in his living room.
It added that the police were on their way with the suspect to recover the bat when the vehicle slowed down near a canal near Kariala village after approaching a pothole, where the suspect removed the handcuffs from his right hand. The FIR said the police tried to stop the suspect but he jumped out of the vehicle and ran towards the bushes.
As the police were chasing after the suspect, they heard a splashing sound, the FIR said and added that the police called on him, but the suspect kept moving forward in the water and disappeared.
Last month, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Sahil’s report revealed that 3,364 child abuse cases were reported from across the country in 2024. The children were most vulnerable to abuse in the age group of 11-15 years, in which more boys than girls were reported.
The Punjab Home Department recently launched a campaign to raise awareness about the safety of children. The campaign, called ‘Safe Children, Safe Punjab’, was created “to prevent incidents of sexual abuse of minors”.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday ordered a crackdown against the display of weaponry and use of Toyota Hilux pickup trucks in the province.
The newly formed Crime Control Department (CCD), a specialised unit dedicated to tackling crime in the province, will take “indiscriminate action” against those who create “fear and panic” through such displays.
According to a statement by Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Sohail Zafar Chatha, “Spreading fear and panic in the society and displaying weapons cannot be allowed at all.”
“CCD officers have been ordered to take indiscriminate action against those displaying weapons,” he said.
He added that over 21,000 Safe City cameras will be used to monitor those displaying weapons and modern artificial intelligence will also be used to identify weapons.
Referring to luxurious pickup trucks, the Hilux has become a symbol of power, status, and intimidation in a society marked by significant class divisions.
Hiluxes part the traffic — speeding up behind cars and flashing their lights, demanding drivers move out of their way. Guards with faces wrapped in scarves and armed with AK-47s can be packed into the back of the truck, its windows blacked out. In Karachi, a city rife with street crimes, the imposing Vigo Dala deters even outlaws.
The Hilux debuted in 1968, but the model that became popular in Pakistan was the mid-2000s Hilux Vigo. In recent years, the “Vigo Dala”, as it is locally known, has soared in popularity as an escort vehicle among newly successful urban business owners.
United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that President Donald Trump could speak with China’s Xi Jinping “very soon” and that such a call could help break the logjam in the trade talks between the world’s two biggest economies.
Trump on Friday accused Beijing of violating a deal reached last month in Geneva — negotiated by Bessent — to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days.
China’s slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips have fueled US frustration, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday — a concern since confirmed by US officials.
But Bessent seemed to take the pressure down a notch, telling CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ that the gaps could be bridged.
“I’m confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out,” Bessent said, noting that China was “withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement.”
When asked if rare earths were one of those products, Bessent said, “Yes.”
“Maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it’s intentional. We’ll see after the president speaks with” Xi, he said.
On when a Trump-Xi call could take place, Bessent said: “I believe we will see something very soon.”
Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports.
New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 per cent to 30pc. China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125pc to 10pc.
In an interview with ABC’s ‘This Week’, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said China was “slow-rolling the deal,” adding: “We are taking certain actions to show them what it feels like on the other side of that equation.
“Our president understands what to do. He’s going to go work it out,” Lutnick said.
