Author: i2wtc
Police personnel patrol a street following crackdown on TLP activists during an anti-Israel protest in Muridke on October 13. Photo : AFP LAHORE: In the wake of the violent protests by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Punjab Police have drawn up extensive lists of the party’s leaders and senior activists for province-wide arrests, officials confirmed on Wednesday. According to police sources, Inspector General (IG) Punjab Dr Usman Anwar has finalised lists identifying 4,500 prominent TLP leaders and workers across the province. The lists have been dispatched to the CCPO Lahore and all Regional Police Officers (RPOs) with instructions to initiate immediate arrests.…
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent adjusts his glasses during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and President of Argentina Javier Milei in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Oct. 14, 2025 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images China has been using its dominance in the rare earth industry to slash prices, driving foreign competitors out, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Wednesday stateside in an exclusive interview. He characterized the country as having “a nonmarket economy.”In response, the Trump administration will “exercise industrial policy” to set price floors in a range of industries. Price…
File: Meta President Global Affairs Nick Clegg speaks during a press conference at the Meta showroom in Brussels on December 07, 2022.Kenzo Tribouillard | Afp | Getty ImagesThe chance of a market correction in the artificial intelligence sector is “pretty high,” former Meta executive and British politician Nick Clegg warned on Wednesday, as he pushed back on the concept of artificial superintelligence. Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the U.K. who went on to guide policy decisions at U.S. tech giant Meta, said the AI boom has resulted in “unbelievable, crazy valuations.” “There’s just absolute spasm of almost daily, hourly,…
An aerial drone photo taken on Oct. 13, 2025 shows reapers harvesting corns in a field of a farming company under Beidahuang Group in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. (Photo by Lu Wenxiang/Xinhua)BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — China has been in a rush to harvest autumn grains, the mainstay of the country’s annual grain production, as it seeks to achieve another bumper harvest this year despite unfavorable weather conditions affecting some regions.Latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that so far, more than 60 percent of the nation’s autumn grain crops have been harvested. Autumn grains typically…
Punjab Home Department gives one-month deadline to surrender illegal arms, register legal weapons Punjab is considering banning the rightwing Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan after scores of policemen were injured trying to prevent the party from marching on to Islamabad from Lahore. This would be the second time the party risks being banned. The last time was briefly in 2021 after similar street fights. The TLP wanted to head to Islamabad to protest outside the US Embassy in a show of solidarity with Palestinians. As the police and protesters clashed, the demonstrators set fire to scores of vehicles and 48 policemen were injured.…
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday announced a staff-level agreement for the release of $1.2 billion next loan tranches after Islamabad, for now, agreed to the old pre-floods budget targets and to publish the governance report before the board meeting. The deal will cement the positive market sentiments and ensure the continuity of fragile economic stability. Pakistan’s decision not to push further its demand for relaxation in the primary budget surplus target at this stage to offset the impact of floods on the budget and to officially release the Governance and Corruption Diagnosis assessment report before the mid of…
People walk past a PCCW sign in Hong Kong.Mike Clarke | AFP | Getty Images Regulators in the U.S. have moved to block one of Hong Kong’s largest telecommunications companies from accessing domestic networks, citing national security concerns.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday that it had initiated proceedings to potentially bar HKT Trust and HKT Ltd and its subsidiaries from interconnecting with American networks, escalating concerns over its ties to China. The government agency asked HKT, which is a subsidiary of information and communication technology giant PCCW, to justify why its authorizations should not be revoked. HKT’s current hold…
Liquid cooled servers in an installation at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus in London, UK, on Monday, June 16, 2025.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesEurope’s ambitious artificial intelligence strategy is at risk of colliding with an often overlooked but critically important environmental issue: water scarcity.The European Union has big plans for data center expansion, announcing in April that it intends to at least triple its capacity over the next five to seven years as part of a push to become a world-class AI hub.The rapid rollout of data centers, which power all aspects of the digital economy, from…
The TSMC logo is displayed on a building in Hsinchu, Taiwan April 15, 2025. Ann Wang | ReutersTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 39.1% increase in third-quarter profit from last year, hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong.Here are the company’s results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:Revenue: NT$989.92 billion new Taiwan dollars, vs. NT$977.46 billion expectedNet income: NT$452.3 billion, vs. NT$417.69 billion TSMC’s revenue in the September quarter rose 30.3% from a year ago to NT$989.92 billion, beating estimates.TSMC’s high-performance computing division, which encompasses artificial intelligence and 5G applications, drove third-quarter sales.As Asia’s largest technology company…
Once viewed with fear and skepticism, airport biometric screenings are now preferred and even expected by global travelers, according to a report by the air transport technology company Sita.”The more passengers use it, the more they like it,” the report stated.Globally, the number of people who haven’t used biometric technology at airports dropped to 31% this year from 41% in 2024, the report said.Comfort levels are rising as consumers use biometric identification to access everything, from their mobile phones to their workplaces, said Sarah Samuel, senior vice president of airport and airline operations in Asia-Pacific at the travel technology company…