PAKISTAN SAYS IMF APPROVED REVIVAL OF HUGE LOAN PROGRAMME

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board has approved the seventh and eighth reviews of Pakistan’s bailout programme, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said, which will release $1.17bn in funds to the cash-strapped country.

Ismail also said the IMF agreed to extend the programme by a year and augment the funds by $1bn.

The money will be a lifeline to the South Asian country, currently suffering from devastating floods, whose foreign exchange reserves have fallen to levels that cover only a month of exports and whose economy has wrangled with an enormous current account deficit and high inflation.

“The IMF Board has approved the revival of our EFF program. We should now be getting the 7th & 8th tranche of $1.17 billion,” Ismail said on Twitter.

The IMF’s resident representative in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The aid comes as “Pakistan’s economy has been buffeted by adverse external conditions due to spillovers from the war in Ukraine, and domestic challenges”, said IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh in a statement.

SNAG POSTPONES NASA MOON ROCKET LAUNCH

Nasa has called off the launch of its big new Moon rocket - the Space Launch System (SLS).

Controllers struggled to get an engine on the 100m-tall vehicle cooled down to its correct operating temperature.

They had previously worried about what appeared to be a crack high up on the rocket but eventually determined it was merely frost build-up.

The SLS is the biggest rocket ever developed by Nasa. It will be used to send astronauts back to the Moon.

The maiden flight, part of Nasa's Artemis programme, is just a demonstration with no-one on board. But ever more complex missions are planned for the future that will see people live on the lunar surface for weeks at a time.

The scrub will have disappointed the hundreds of thousands of spectators who had gathered on local beaches and causeways to see the most powerful rocket in 50 years fly skyward.

But Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson, himself a one-time astronaut, said the cautious approach was the right one.

Nasa has the option to try again on Friday, if the engine issue can be resolved by then.

However, if controllers have to roll the rocket back to Kennedy's assembly building to swap out the engine, it will introduce several weeks' delay.

PAKISTAN FLOODS: ONE THIRD OF COUNTRY IS UNDER WATER - MINISTER

One-third of Pakistan has been completely submerged by historic flooding, its climate minister says.

Devastating flash floods have washed away roads, homes and crops - leaving a trail of deadly havoc across Pakistan.

"It's all one big ocean, there's no dry land to pump the water out," Sherry Rehman said, calling it a "crisis of unimaginable proportions."

At least 1,136 people have died since the monsoon season began in June, according to officials.

The summer rain is the heaviest recorded in a decade and is blamed by the government on climate change.

"Literally, one-third of Pakistan is underwater right now, which has exceeded every boundary, every norm we've seen in the past," Ms Rehman told AFP news agency.

"We've never seen anything like this," the minister added.

Of those who are known to have died, 75 were in the past 24 hours alone, officials said on Monday, adding that the death toll is expected to rise.

Speaking to the BBC, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said one-third of those killed are believed to be children.

"We're still coming to grips with the extent of the damage," he added.

Officials estimate that more than 33 million Pakistanis - one in seven people - have been affected by the historic flooding.

Heavy waters in the country's northern Swat Valley have swept away bridges and roads, cutting off entire villages.

Thousands of people living in the mountainous area have been ordered to evacuate - but even with the help of helicopters, authorities are still struggling to reach those who are trapped.

"Village after village has been wiped out. Millions of houses have been destroyed," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday after flying over the area in a helicopter.

FROM 300K TROOPS TO 50,000: RUSSIA SCALES BACK WAR GAMES WITH CHINA

London : Russian military exercises in the Far East this week will take place on a far smaller scale than when they were last held in 2018, reflecting the strain on Moscow’s forces as they struggle to make headway on the battlefields of Ukraine.

Announcing the “Vostok 2022” war games, in which China will also participate, the Russian defence ministry said last month that its capacity to stage such exercises was in no way affected. But the 50,000 personnel that Moscow said on Monday will take part are a fraction of the official figure of 3,00,000 that were said to be involved four years ago — though some Western military analysts suspect that number was overstated. The defence ministry said 140 military aircraft and over 5,000 items of military hardware would be deployed — way down on the 1,000 aircraft and 36,000 tanks and armoured vehicles that were reported to have been sent into the 2018 manoeuvres.

“This is going to be the smallest strategic-level exercise in years because the entire ground forces potential is engaged in operations in Ukraine. So the exercise will have to be very small,” said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Rochan military consultancy based in Poland. Muzyka said he estimated that 70-80% of units from Russia’s eastern military district had been deployed to Ukraine, making it “impossible” for Moscow to free up 50,000 men for exercises. He said a more plausible figure would be 10,000 to 15,000.

IAEA TEAM HEADS TO ZAPORIZHZHIA PLANT

A team from the UN nuclear watchdog headed on Monday to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the agency’s chief said, as Russia and Ukraine traded accusations of shelling in its vicinity, fuelling fears of a radiation disaster.

Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia has been a hotspot in a conflict that has settled into a war of attrition fought mainly in Ukraine’s east and south six months after Russia launched its invasion.

“We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a post on Twitter.

A team of IAEA inspectors he is leading will reach the plant on the Dnipro river near frontlines in southern Ukraine this week, Mr. Grossi said, without specifying the day of their arrival.

The IAEA tweeted separately that the mission would assess physical damage, evaluate the conditions in which staff are working at the plant and “determine functionality of safety & security systems”. It would also “perform urgent safeguards activities”, a reference to keeping track of nuclear material.

12 DIE IN IRAQ CLASHES, GOVT BLDGS STORMED

Influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Monday that he was retiring from Iraqi politics and closing all of his movement’s political and social institutions, deepening the country’s political crisis and raising fears that his followers could increasingly turn to destabilising street protests to achieve their aims.

His announcement sent hundreds of his followers into the streets of the capital, Baghdad, where they breached concrete barriers guarding th Green Zone, the site of parliament, Iraqi government offices and diplomatic missions. At least 12 protesters were killed and over 100 were injured by security forces. Protesters then breached the entrance of the Republican Palace that hosts Cabinet meetings. Iraq’s military announced a nation-wide curfew.

PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi said he was suspending Cabinet sessions until further notice.

Iraq has been without a new government since polls in October, in which candidatesloyal to al-Sadr won the single biggest bloc of seats and eclipsed rival Shia political parties backed by Iran. That has left Iraq with a caretaker government that has not been able to address urgent economic problems. In the midst of disagreements with other parties over who should be president and PM, al-Sadr threw the processof forming a government into turmoil in June when he ordered members of parliament loyal to him to resign.

His followers set up a camp that blockaded parliament for weeks to prevent lawmakers from meeting. They also occupied the parliament building for afew days. Al-Sadr has had an uneasy relationship with Iran, and if his vow to quit politics stands, it could pave the way for his Iranian-backed rivals to form the nucleus of a new government. His ability to mobilise millions of followers throughout Shia-majority Iraq means he could also engineer protests that would threaten any new government if he wishes.

NO ATOMIC DEAL IF PROBE GOES ON, SAYS RAISI

The Iranian President on Monday said that reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers would be futile unless the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ends its probe of undeclared sites in the country. Ebrahim Raisi’s remarks came as Tehran reviews the U.S. response to its suggestions on a “final” text prepared by EU.

Iran wants to sort out the issue before any revived deal is implemented, but U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday said “we do not believe there should be any conditionality” between the deal and undeclared sites.

LANKA TO PRIVATISE NATIONAL CARRIER

Sri Lanka on Monday said it’ll privatise the country’s loss-making national carrier as the cash-strapped government “can no longer afford to inject money” into running the airline. The government is looking to sell a 49% stake each of the Sri Lankan Airlines’ catering and ground-handling units in efforts to restructure the state-run carrier, while 51% will be retained under state hold, aviation minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.