Latest news with #Transit
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Sindh govt fully mobilised to deal with rain challenge: Sharjeel
KARACHI: Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon stated that the Sindh government is completely mobilized against the recent rains and the broader impact of climate change in the country. The recent rains have caused severe damage in the north, whereas Sindh has faced torrential rains and damaging floods repeatedly since 2010 and has gained rich experience in coping with such emergency scenarios. If any other province requires assistance, the Sindh government stands ready to provide all possible support. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Sindh Senior Minister and Provincial Minister for Information, Transport, and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the administration, under the leadership of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, is fully alert, with all necessary machinery available around the clock. He stated that, on the instructions of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, all party workers and leadership are standing with the people, and public service remains the top priority. He also assured full coordination and support from the Sindh government in light of the recent visits by the Governor of Punjab. Sharjeel Inam Memon strongly condemned the unfortunate incident in Balochistan, stating that those involved in the killing of innocent people must be given the strictest punishment. He added that the Pakistan Peoples' Party strongly denounces such acts of violence and stands in solidarity with the victims. He stated that the Pakistan Peoples' Party is currently the largest party in the Senate and is actively playing its role in promoting peace, stability, and development at the federal level. Sharjeel Memon stated that, to address the challenges faced by the business community, the Sindh government has launched an online one-window operation aimed at eliminating red tape. He said that this is a golden opportunity for business in Pakistan, and the Sindh government is making every effort to provide all possible facilities to industrialists and traders. He said that strict action has been taken regarding the recent building collapse incident in Karachi. Out of 61 extremely dangerous buildings, 59 have already been evacuated. Immediate action is being taken against illegal constructions, and several such structures have been demolished. He added that the Sindh government is providing six months' rent to affected tenants to ensure they do not face hardships. He appealed to the public to promptly report any illegal constructions, as they pose a serious threat to human lives—something that cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. Sharjeel Memon said that mega projects in Karachi are progressing rapidly. The Jam Sadiq Bridge is expected to be completed and opened to the public by August, while construction work is also underway on Shahrah-e-Bhutto. The Yellow Line and Red Line BRT projects are nearing completion. He said that work is being prioritized in the areas where the public is facing inconvenience. The Sindh Chief Minister is holding regular meetings on the K-4 project, which is also expected to be completed soon. Sharjeel Memon said that while the punishment of a political leader is not a cause for celebration, attacks involving arson and the siege of state property are absolutely unacceptable. He condemned the setting fire to the People's Bus Service, ambulances, and Quaid-e-Azam's house, calling it the worst form of terrorism. He emphasized that it is the state's responsibility to bring such perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law. He said that the mastermind behind the May 9th arson attack is currently in Adiala Jail. While he kept his own children abroad, he took children from ordinary families onto the streets and used them against the state. This is not politics but terrorism, which must be stopped at all costs. Sharjeel Memon further stated that, for the first time in history, action has been taken against senior government officials involved in illegal constructions. Many constructions were carried out without approved plans, and following surveys, action is being taken against those responsible. Legal proceedings are underway against builders found violating the law to ensure that no one is allowed to jeopardize human lives in the future. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Time Out
13 hours ago
- Time Out
The PATH is acting messy this week—here's how to get free or discounted rides to make up for it
If you commute through Hoboken on the PATH, brace yourself. Following a July 12 derailment blamed on switch problems at Hoboken Terminal, the PATH system is limping through the week with delays, reduced service and a lot of frustrated riders. But to soften the blow, transit officials are offering a slate of alternate travel options, including some that are completely free or steeply discounted. From now through Friday, July 25 at 11:59pm, PATH riders can use NJ Transit rail and light rail without paying extra and hop ferries across the Hudson for just three bucks. You'll need a valid PATH fare card or a digital cross-honoring pass from the RidePATH app to take advantage, but the trade-off might be worth it if it means avoiding the Hoboken chaos. NJ Transit is cross-honoring PATH riders at Hoboken, Secaucus and New York Penn Station, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail is doing the same at Exchange Place, Newport and Hoboken. Over on the water, NY Waterway is offering $3 ferry tickets during peak hours on routes between Hoboken and Brookfield Place, as well as Hoboken and the Midtown terminal at West 39th Street. Just be sure to ride during the posted time windows—this isn't an all-day free-for-all. Service disruptions stem from ongoing repairs to the complex rail switches that let PATH trains navigate in and out of Hoboken Terminal. Those switches were recently replaced as part of the PATH Forward rehab project but are now being blamed for a derailment that sent the last car of a 33rd Street-bound train off the tracks. The crash didn't cause injuries, but it did cause service to grind to a halt and has forced trains to run less frequently ever since. In the meantime, PATH is urging commuters to use the alternate routes while repairs continue. It's not ideal, but it's not nothing. And if you've ever wanted an excuse to swap your underground routine for a breezy ferry ride with skyline views, this is your moment.
CTV News
4 days ago
- CTV News
Blue Line in part of northeast closed until Monday
Blue line service will be disrupted this weekend between Rundle and Franklin stations. Part of the Blue Line will be shut down for routine maintenance this weekend, disrupting CTrain service until Monday morning. The line will be closed between Rundle and Franklin in the northeast quadrant of the city Saturday and Sunday. Shuttle buses will replace train service, running every five minutes between stations. The northeast bound tracks at Rundle and Franklin closed Friday at 8:15 p.m. Full service resumes Monday, July 21.
Scoop
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Ominous Plans: Making Concentration Camp Gaza
The odious idea of a camp within a camp. The Gaza Strip, with an even greater concentration of Palestinian civilian life within an ever-shrinking stretch of territory. These are the proposals ventured by the Israeli government even as the official Palestinian death toll marches upwards to 60,000. They envisage the placement of some 600,000 displaced and houseless beings currently living in tents in the area of al-Mawasi along Gaza's southern coast in a creepily termed 'humanitarian city'. This would be the prelude for an ultimate relocation of the strip's entire population of over 2 million in an area that will become an even smaller prison than the Strip already is. The preparation for such a forced removal – yet another among so many Israel has inflicted upon the Palestinians – is in full swing. The analysis of satellite imagery from the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) by Al Jazeera's Sanad investigations unit found that approximately 12,800 buildings were demolished in Rafah between early April and early July alone. In the Knesset on May 11 this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave words to those deeds: 'We are demolishing more and more [of their] homes, they have nowhere to return to. The only obvious result will be the desire of the Gazans to emigrate outside the Strip.' Camps of concentrated human life – concentration camps, in other words – are often given a different dressing to what they are meant to be. Authoritarian states enjoy using them to re-educate and reform the inmates even as they gradually kill them. Indeed, the proposals from the Israel's Defense Department carry with them plans for a 'Humanitarian Transit Area' where Gazans would 'temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so'. The emetic candy floss of 'humanitarian' in the context of a camp is a self-negating nonsense similar to other experiments in cruelty: the relocation of Boer civilians during the colonial wars waged by Britain to camps which saw dysentery and starvation; the movement of Vietnamese villagers into fortified hamlets to prevent their infiltration by the Vietcong in the 1960s; the creation of Pacific concentration camps to detain refugees seeking Australia by boat in what came to be called the 'Pacific Solution'. Those in the business of doing humanitarian deeds were understandably appalled by Israel's latest plans. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), stated that this would 'de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations'. It would certainly 'deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland.' Self-evidently and sadly, that would be one of the main aims. A few of Israeli's former Prime Ministers have ditched the coloured goggles in considering the plans for such a mislabelled city. Yair Lapid, who spent a mere six months in office in 2022, told Israeli Army Radio that it was 'a bad idea from every possible perspective – security, political, economic, logistical'. While preferring not to use the term 'concentration camp' with regards such a construction, incarcerating individuals by effectively preventing their exit would make such a term appropriate. Ehud Olmert's words to The Guardian were even less inclined to varnish the matter. 'If they [the Palestinians] will be deported into the new 'humanitarian city', then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing'. To create a camp that would effectively 'clean' more than half of Gaza of its population could hardly be understood as a plan to save Palestinians. 'It is to deport them, to push and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have at least.' Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg was also full of candour in expressing the view that the plan was 'for all facts and purposes a concentration camp' for Gaza's Palestinians, 'an overt crime against humanity under international humanitarian law'. This would also add the burgeoning grounds of illegality already being alleged in this month's petition by three Israeli reserve soldiers of Israel's Supreme Court questioning the legality of Operation Gideon's Chariots. Instancing abundant examples of forced transfer and expulsions of the Palestinian population during its various phases, commentators such as former chief of staff of the IDF, Moshe 'Bogy' Ya'alon, are unreserved about how such programs fare before international law. 'Evacuating an entire population? Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation, it's a war crime,' he told journalist Lucy Aharish. 'Israel's soldiers had been sent in 'to commit war crimes.' There is also some resistance from within the IDF, less on humanitarian grounds than practical ones. To even prepare such a plan in the midst of negotiations for a lasting ceasefire and finally resolving the hostage situation was the first telling problem. The other was how the IDF could feasibly undertake what would be a grand jailing experiment while preventing the infiltration of Hamas. This ghastly push by the Netanyahu government involves an enormous amount of wishful thinking. Ideally, the Palestinians will simply leave. If not, they will live in even more carceral conditions than they faced before October 2023. But to assume that this cartoon strip humanitarianism, papered over a ghoulish program of inflicted suffering, will add to the emptying well of Israeli security, is testament to how utterly desperate, and delusionary, the Israeli PM and his cabinet members have become.
Courier-Mail
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- Courier-Mail
New Ford Transit Custom: The $63k van that rivals popular utes
Don't miss out on the headlines from On the Road. Followed categories will be added to My News. No self-respecting British tradie would be seen dead in a ute. What a Pommy geezer needs is a Ford Transit van. Preferably in white and on steel wheels – hazard lights working overtime as it's slung up a kerb, blocking traffic for 'just a minute, mate!' While Aussies buy utes, pick-ups or American trucks for work and lifestyle, the Brits' relationship with the mighty Transit goes back to 1965. Aussies buy roughly ten times more utes than vans, but it's vice-versa in the UK. As a kid growing up in England, Transits were an integral part of daily life. 2025 Ford Transit. Picture: Supplied MORE: Why 'dumb ute' incentives don't make sense Ambos and posties had them, a rusty 1976 example was our school sport bus, and a police Transit would sit outside the local pub at closing time. Transits remain the patriotic choice of UK delivery drivers, market traders, removalists, fruit 'n veg sellers and dodgy Del Boys literally selling out the back of a van. 'Thieves chariot' is common slang for Transit. As part of my birthright, it was my duty to test the new-generation Transit on Aussie soil. Ford facilitated me being White Van Man for a week, furnishing me with a Transit Custom Trend LWB (long wheelbase). At around $63,000 drive-away, it's the cheapest available bar a 367mm-shorter SWB at a grand less. 2025 Ford Transit. Picture: Supplied It's a lot of coin in the 'one-tonne' medium van segment. Rivals include the Hyundai Staria Load (from $46,740), LDV G10+ (from $37,884) Toyota HiAce (from $48,886) and Renault Trafic (from $49,490). But look to van tests here and overseas, and it's the pricey Ford scooping awards. On first drive, it's apparent why. A 'car-like driving experience' is a cliche for any commercial vehicle, but the Transit really is an easy, composed and comfortable thing to live with. Piloting one isn't a huge departure from a large SUV. There are all your driver aids, adaptive cruise control, a small digital driver display, giant 13-inch landscape infotainment, wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, wireless phone charger, sat nav and 5G modem. Two of its three bench seats are heated. There's fancy independent rear suspension helping ride quality and handling, and unladen or with almost a tonne in the back, the Transit absorbs bumps well and corners safely. And proves incomparably useful. My daughter got a (pre-assembled) bunk bed, we bought a new Queen mattress ($70 delivery fee saved), and for tradition's sake, we even transported an old piano. Damn, they're heavy. 2025 Ford Transit. Picture: Supplied MORE: Jet pilot tech to change Aussie cars The Transit's easier to load than a ute with its kerbside sliding door and mighty wide opening rear barn doors. And the cargo stays dry, protected and locked under the metal roof. But I hear you, Ford Ranger faithfuls, a Transit won't off-road or tow a 3-tonne caravan. Even so, there's 2500kg towing and 1223kg payload capacity. Its 2.0-litre turbo-diesel offers only 125kW, so it runs out of puff quite quickly, but its chunky 390Nm makes it rapid off the mark in town, where these Fords are at their best. We retuned an impressive 6.9L/100km over 630km of delivery jobs. Bar a few stutters, its eight-speed auto's a smoothie. The turning circle's adequate at 12.8 metres, but this LWB is 5450mm long, so parking's a hassle. But nobody seems to mind you abandoning a Transit up a footpath … Van traits remain. You sit very high almost over the front wheels; scratchy cabin plastics feel a long way from a $60k vehicle, and seat cloth is rather workmanlike. 2025 Ford Transit. Picture: Supplied In this entry-level spec you must adjust seats manually and wheels are titchy 16-inch steelies. I also found its giant 6.8 square metres load area too spartan. The walls have soft cladding and there are eight tie-down floor points, but nothing to secure loads up high. Insulated ceiling wiring looked too exposed, and I had to towel-wrap the tethered car jack to stop it damaging my cargo. Rear visibility's poor through the rear cabin glass, and at night the giant screen reflects on it, making things worse. A digital rearview mirror showing the (excellent) rear camera view would solve this. 2025 Ford Transit. Picture: Supplied MORE: Bold plan to seduce millionaires Positively, Transit choice is lengthy. There's also a full size van; a 12-seater bus; cab chassis; five-seat double cab Transit Custom; a Sport grade and all-wheel-drive Trail grade. Greenies can ditch the diesel and go plug-in or full EV. Are these big white boxes as sexy as your tricked up dual-cab ute? Of course they're not. But you'd be fool to underestimate the versatility of a Ford Transit. They securely haul a lot more stuff and the drive experience is rather lovely. And there's nothing quite like leaning out the window, putting on your best London accent and shouting: 'Get out that way, ya Muppet!' to fellow road users. Originally published as 2025 Ford Transit review
