Malala Yousafzai partners with Apple TV+

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Malala Yousafzai and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who just graduated from Oxford University this year, landed a deal with Apple TV+ to produce original programming for the streaming service.

Apple unveiled a multiyear programming partnership with women’s rights activist and youngest Nobel laureate Yousafzai Monday. Building on Yousafzai’s longstanding relationship with Apple, her original programming for Apple TV+ will span dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children’s series, and draw on her ability to inspire people around the world.

“I believe in the power of stories to bring families together, forge friendships, build movements, and inspire children to dream,” said Yousafzai. “And I couldn’t ask for a better partner than Apple to help bring these stories to life. I’m grateful for the opportunity to support women, young people, writers, and artists in reflecting the world as they see it.”

"I have met Tim Cook in person, and I know how passionate he is for women's rights, equality and education," Yousafzai told CBS' Gayle King. "I had met so many people who say nice things but don't follow up, but Tim was just very different. He literally, like, started supporting Malala Fund."

At age 14, Malala was shot in the face by members of the Taliban for her advocacy of educating girls, which goes against the beliefs of the Taliban in Pakistan. 

At age 16, Yousafzai published her best-selling memoir, “I Am Malala.” She’s since written two more books, starred in a documentary about her early life, and created Assembly, a digital publication for girls and young women available on Apple News. Since launching in 2018, Assembly has published stories from young women in more than 100 countries and in over 20 languages.

At 17, she became the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize for her work as an advocate for empowering young girls around the world.

Yousafzai also founded Malala Fund to champion every girl’s right to 12 years of safe, free, quality education. In 2018, Apple became Malala Fund’s first Laureate partner, supporting the organization’s work with local advocates and teachers in eight countries where girls face significant education challenges. Apple also assists with technology, curriculum, and research into policy changes to support girls’ education. The partnership has since expanded, and in Brazil, Apple’s 10 Developer Academies have partnered with Malala Fund to advance girls’ education opportunities there and around the world.

Cook told King, "Apple TV+ for us is a platform for very impactful and creative storytellers that really want to connect with their audience and change the world in the process. And there's no better example of that than Malala."

Priyanka Chopra Jonas steps into India-Pakistan dispute

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Priyanka Chopra Jones speaks her mind about the dispute between India and Pakistan.

ASAM NEWS

Actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas is embroiled in a controversy after statements she made concerning the current dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, long a hotspot of contention between the two countries.

The Bollywood actress is currently under fire, as Pakistan just launched an official complaint with the United Nations to remove her as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, according to Al Jazeera.

The move comes in response to Chopra Jonas’s supposed endorsement of the Indian national government’s lockdown and revocation of autonomy in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would strip autonomy from the state of Jammu and Kashmir -- its part of the Himalayan region. India imposed curfews and a communication blackout.

Chopra Jonas can be seen in the following video from earlier this month responding to someone who confronted her about a February tweet in which she allegedly encouraged war against Pakistan:


“Her jingoism and support for violations by the Modi government of international conventions and UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, as well as support for war, including a nuclear war, undermines the credibility of the UN position to which she been elevated,” Pakistan’s human rights minister Shireen Mazari said in a letter to UNICEF. “Unless she is removed immediately, the very idea of a UN goodwill ambassador for peace becomes a mockery globally.”

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday (Aug. 22): "When UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors speak in their personal capacity, they retain the right to speak about issues that interest or concern them."

The Indian-born actress' Twitter account is currently quiet on the matter.

Chopra Jonas will be starring in We Can Be Heroes, a new Netflix film about a team of superhero children who have to save the world after aliens abduct their hero parents, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fresh Off The Boat’s Dylan Henry Lau and The Fast and the Furious actor Sung Kang have also been announced as part of the We Can Be Heroes cast, reports Deadline.Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids, and Alita: Battle Angel) will be writing, directing, and producing the movie.

Chopra Jonas is the second actress who has drawn the wrath of fans in recent weeks for making controversial statements about political situations in Asia.

Chinese and Asian American supporters of the pro-Democracy protests in Hong Kong called for a boycott the upcoming live-action Mulan movie when its star Crystal Yifei Liu used social media to express her support for the Hong Kong police.

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Sunday Read: Faith, Friendship and Tragedy at Sana Fe High

This Sunday, I'm referring you, dear readers, to a well-written, absolutely heartbreaking story written for the Texas Monthly upon the one-year anniversary of the tragic mass shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston. 

Sabika Sheikh, a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan with dreams of changing the world, struck up an unlikely friendship with Jaelyn Cogburn,  an evangelical Christian girl. The two became inseparable—until the day a fellow student opened fire.

Here:s an excerpt:

Sabika went upstairs for her evening prayer, and as she unfurled her prayer mat, the bedroom door opened behind her. There stood Jaelyn, holding her own prayer rug. She placed it beside Sabika’s and said she wanted to pray with her. Sabika nodded, dropped to her knees, and prayed to Allah. 

“Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah,” Sabika recited

“Dear precious Lord and Savior, thank you for this day,” Jaelyn began.

Read the entire story at the Texas Monthly. 

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Thousands pray for Pakistani student slain at Texas high school

Photo by Ahmed Sharma

A prayer service was held prior to the funeral for Sabika Sheikh. 

By Ahmed Sharma
ASAM NEWS

SUNDAY (May 19) was a dark and dreary day in Texas. Rain poured heavily as cars raced to attend the funeral services for Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistani exchange student who was one of 10 killed during last week’s school shooting in Sante Fe, a small town outside Houston.

Thousands of Muslims gathered at Masjid As-Sabireen mosque in Stafford, a city about 19 miles away from Houston, to pay their respects. The overflow crowd prayed outside on the sidewalk.

As the prayers began, voices clamored to delay services a few more minutes so other people could find parking and join in. Despite a majority of the participants not knowing Sabika Sheikh, even the rain and scarce parking did not deter people from coming to pray for her.

Directly after the services, Sheikh’s body was carried to a hearse and taken to the airport, so that she may be buried in her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan.

SABIKA SHEIKH

A majority of the attendees did not know Sheikh but one volunteer said, “she has no family here except her host family and it happened here in our city so of course we will pay our respects. It is [part of] our [faith] and she is our daughter and our sister in Islam.”Among the attendees were dignitaries like Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Texas Rep. Al Green.

A crowd formed inside the mosque as well to hear from Sheikh’s host family and friends. According to the host parents, they began fasting with Sabika Sheikh during the month of Ramadan. One of the daughters of the host family, Jaelyn Cogburn, fought through tears during her eulogy: 

“When I first started school, I didn’t know anyone. And I met Saika, and she didn’t know anyone either. And we became very close…She was so loyal to her faith and her country. And she loved everybody. She was the most amazing person I’d ever met, and I will always miss her.”

“Sabika’s case should become an example to change the gun laws,” Aziz Sheikh, Sabika’s father, told Reuters.  “I want this to become a base on which the people over there can stand and pass a law to deal with this. I’ll do whatever I can,” he said from Pakistan.

“One should not lose his heart by such kind of incidents,” he told the Associated Press. “One should not stop going for education to the U.S. or U.K., or China, or anywhere. One must go for education undeterred. But controlling such incidents is the responsibility of the respective governments.”

Sabika was in the U.S. as an exchange student under the YES program sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

Former Houston City Council member, M.J. Khan emceed the eulogies and prefaced by reminding everyone of the other nine children that were killed in the Santa Fe shooting and to offer prayers for them as well: 

“When you offer your prayers today, I know each and every one of you is mourning. Remember Aaron McLeod. Remember Christopher J. Stone. Remember Jared Black. Remember Christian Riley Garcia. Remember Angelique Ramirez. Remember Shauna Fisher. Remember Kimberly Vaughn. And the two teachers: Cynthia Tisdale and Glenda Perkins. And remember our beloved daughter, Sabika Sheikh.

After the Houston services, her body was sent home to Pakistan. Her father was at the Karachi  airport today (May 23) to receive her.

(Views from the Edge contributed to this report.)

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Pakistani exchange student killed in Texas school shooting

SABIKA SHEIKH

ASAM NEWS

AN EXCHANGE STUDENTfrom Pakistan is among the 10 people killed when a gunman went on a shooting spree at Santa Fe High School near Houston Friday (May 18) morning.

The Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C. confirmed that Sabika Sheikh has been identified among the nine students and one teacher killed, reports Gulf Today.

Sabina is one of 75 students from Pakistan to participate in the Youth Exchange and Study Abroad program.

“Please know that the YES programme is devastated by this loss and we will remember Sabika and her families in our thoughts and prayers,” Lysaght wrote.

Sheikh father found out about his daughter’s death watching the news in Pakistan on CNN, according to The News

“I kept calling her and sent her messages on WhatsApp. Never before had my daughter failed to reply,” said her tearful father, Abdul Aziz.

“We are still in a state of denial. It is like a nightmare.”

Actress Mindy Kaling expressed her condolences on Twitter.

Police have arrested 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis and have charged him with capital murder and aggravated assault. Authorities say he used guns -- a shotgun and a revolver -- he got from his father in the shooting spree.

The Texas shootings occurred months after a shooting rampage at Marjorie Douglas Stonman High School in Florida where 17 were killed.

The year is not even half over and already, there have been more deaths in US school shootings so far in 2018 than there have been deaths in the U.S. military, according to an analysis by the Washington Post.

Earlier this month Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, a Republican, spoke in front of the NRA convention and said,  "The problem is not guns, it's hearts without God," Abbott said at the time, according to The Texas Observer.

After the high school shooting, on Friday, Abbott called for gun laws . "We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families," The governor will begin holding roundtable discussions next week with "stakeholders to begin to work immediately on swift solutions to prevent tragedies like these from ever happening again," according to the Dallas Morning News.

(Views From the Edge contributed to this report.)______________________________________________________________________________