Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday thanked Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif for what he called a “warm welcome and positive gesture” after she publicly greeted him on his visit to Punjab.

Responding to a post on X by Maryam, Bilawal wrote: “Thank you, Madam Chief Minister, for the warm welcome and positive gesture.” 

In her message, Maryam had said: “I extend a warm welcome to @BBhuttoZardari on his visit to Punjab. Punjab is your home, and you will always find a place of respect here.”

“Thank you for your gracious remarks. You have my heartfelt good wishes and prayers,” she added.

In October, Maryam had asserted that her government had neither complained nor sought help from anyone for assisting flood-affected citizens, saying that Punjab would handle the crisis through its own resources. 

“I did not stretch my hands before anyone. I have protected the self-respect of Punjab’s people,” she said, in an apparent reference to Bilawal’s appeal to the Centre to seek international assistance for flood victims.

Earlier in September, the PPP chief had criticised the “delay” in initiating this process, calling it “beyond comprehension” and pointing out that such appeals were standard practice for disasters of this scale internationally. 

He noted that similar steps had been taken for the last floods when he was foreign minister, as well as for the 2010 floods and the 2005 earthquake.

The two key allies were subsequently engaged in a searing war of words that began over flood compensation through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). 

The verbal bickering later subsided after the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) scrambled a delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, who met President Asif Ali Zardari in Nawabshah.

Taylor Swift opens her new Disney+ docuseries The End of an Era with a message to the performers who joined her on the Eras tour.

Just before the final show in Vancouver, she tells them, “We have done something that no one has ever done,” adding, “We have performed for over 10 million people, in person… We performed for 10 million plus people.”

Swift reflects on how each member of her team found their path. “I think about every single one of you as a little kid… Every single one of us has picked professions that categorically people tell you [that] you should do it.”

The six-part series, previewed earlier this week in New York with Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden, gives fans a close look at the tour’s creative and emotional center.

Alongside the premiere, Disney+ also released Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, The Final Show, the post-Tortured Poets cut of her concert film.

Swift explains that the concept for the Eras tour emerged two years before launch, inspired by “unpleasant” events: the sale of her catalog and the decision to rerecord her early albums, paired with the isolation of the pandemic.

With rehearsals under way, she aimed to “over-serve” fans with the scale and scope of the show. “What if I did a tour that celebrated all of these different moments in my life and career?” she recalls.

The series also covers the tour announcement on Good Morning America and the ensuing Ticketmaster chaos, before shifting to more serious moments.

“Never in my life did I think we would have a terrorist plot,” Swift says of the canceled Vienna dates after an attack plan was uncovered. She breaks down when describing the Liverpool stabbing at a Swift-themed event: the victims were children.

The episodes also follow Swift’s first call with fiancé Travis Kelce after Vienna, her reunion with Ed Sheeran in London, and her secret preparation of The Tortured Poets Department set. She credits Emma Stone for linking her with choreographer Mandy Moore.

Fan-favourite dancer Kameron Saunders receives a spotlight as he prepares “Florida!!!” with Florence Welch. 

New episodes release weekly on Disney+.

Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden is offering her own account of what happened behind the scenes when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended in September — including the fact that the White House never contacted Disney during the pause.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV’s The Circuit, Walden said there was no outreach from former President Donald Trump or his administration, despite Trump publicly claiming the late-night show had been “canceled.” “We did not hear from them,” she said.

Walden explained that the decision to pull the September 17 episode stemmed from rising backlash after comments Kimmel made about the murder of Charlie Kirk. Two major affiliate groups threatened to drop the show, and FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he would look into ABC stations’ licenses.

“We didn’t think that was going to be possible that night,” Walden said. “So we hit pause to have conversations with Jimmy. We wanted to resolve the situation in a certain way to protect our employees, to think about our audience.”

She also pushed back on reports of mass cancellations of Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions during the suspension, calling them “highly exaggerated.”

Walden addressed broader issues in the industry as well, including how Disney is approaching artificial intelligence. She said the company is exploring AI to be “faster [and] more efficient,” while stressing that Disney is working “together with the actors, the writers, directors … to protect the contributors in that process.” 

She added, “Disney magic is storytelling. It doesn’t have to be any one form.”

As for speculation about Bob Iger’s eventual successor, Walden avoided engaging. “Being pit against my colleagues I don’t appreciate,” she said. “We are a very tight organization … I have enormous faith in where this company’s going.”