Water entering the tunnels and power plants of the Tarbela Dam 5th Extension Hydropower Project has been drained following a rockfall, with authorities confirming the situation is now under control.

During excavation work for a connecting tunnel, a piece of rock collapsed, injuring a worker and causing water from a water intake well to flow into the tunnel and the power plant under construction. According to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the incident occurred during the excavation of the second bench of the connecting tunnel after a weak rock part gave way.

Haripur Deputy Commissioner Wasim Ahmed said work on the project was stopped immediately after the incident. An emergency was also declared at the site and precautions were taken.

He said all workers were safely evacuated while technical teams of WAPDA and Haripur police were monitoring the situation. Nearby communities faced no threat, he added.

WAPDA said water had been completely drained from the intake pit, while efforts to remove the remaining water from the powerhouse were under way. Senior WAPDA officials, consultants and contractors are assessing the situation to determine the seriousness of the incident.

Authorities also dismissed reports of a collapse in the Tarbela 5 tunnel, clarifying that the project’s main tunnel and power plant were not damaged.

WAPDA confirmed that all workers had been accounted for and no fatalities had been reported. An investigation is under way to establish the cause of the incident. Browse topics

A joint council of Saudi Arabian and Pakistani investors launched a private equity fund on Monday as part of the countries’ broader push to deepen two-way trade and private sector investment.

The Saudi-Pakistan Joint Business Council, formed by the governments of both countries, said the fund’s initial size is “multi hundred million”, which is expected to expand based on opportunities across sectors.

Three-fourths of the fund will be invested in Pakistan, while the rest will be invested in Saudi Arabian projects, the council said in a statement.

The launch of ⁠the ⁠fund comes at a time when Islamabad and Riyadh are deepening longstanding ties, especially in defense, amid few signs of a breakthrough in the months-long US-Iran conflict.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating was near the lowest of his political career, weighed down by national concerns about rising prices that swept his Republican Party in last week’s midterm elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.

About 32% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance in the White House, unchanged from two previous Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted between late October and early November. That’s one percentage point higher than his 31 percent approval rating in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in mid-October, the lowest approval rating of his political career.

The Republican Party led by Trump suffered a catastrophic defeat in the midterm elections held on November 3, losing control of both houses of the US Congress. With some races still undecided, Democrats scored their biggest victory in the ​House of Representatives since at least 2008 while flipping Senate seats in traditionally conservative ​states including Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.

The poll showed just 21% of Americans giving Trump a thumbs-up on his management ‌of ⁠the cost of living. The war the president launched against Iran in February sent fuel prices soaring, straining household finances. Trump’s low approval ratings on the issue also hurt his allies in Congress. Trump’s approval rating for his immigration policies, at 38 percent, remains well above the 25 percent approval rating among Americans for his economic management.

About 81% of Republicans in the survey support Trump’s immigration policies, compared with 50% who support the cost of living. Trump has aggressively increased immigration deportations since returning to the White House in January 2025, and last week promoted Stephen Mueller, a key developer of the policy, to become the new White House chief of staff.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online nationwide from Nov. 6-9, collected responses from 1,705 American adults and had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.