Author: i2wtc

Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought speaks in front of TV camera at White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 7, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | ReutersThe Trump administration could slash more than 10,000 federal jobs during the government shutdown, White House budget director Russell Vought said Wednesday.”We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding,” said Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.”We now have an opportunity to do that, and that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities,” he…

UAE National Security Advisor, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House on March 18, 2025.Courtesy: Donald J. Trump | Via Truth SocialAs artificial intelligence startups raise increasingly large sums of cash to fund their swelling infrastructure needs, they’re turning to strategic partners like Nvidia and big venture firms such as Thrive Capital, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz.But one major financier has a name that’s less familiar in the world of tech investing: MGX.Backed by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund and launched in March 2024, MGX has emerged as a key source of…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has conveyed to key world capitals and friendly nations that it will no longer tolerate cross-border terrorist attacks from Afghanistan and that any future aggression will be met with a swift and decisive response, diplomatic sources told The Express Tribune on Tuesday. Three days after the deadly border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Foreign Office summoned ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions in Islamabad to brief them on the evolving security situation and Islamabad’s stance. In an official statement, the Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch gave a “comprehensive briefing” to resident ambassadors in Islamabad regarding…

Chinese smartphone company Honor is developing a smartphone with an AI-connected camera that unfolds from the back of the device.HonorBEIJING — Chinese smartphone company Honor on Wednesday announced it is developing a smartphone with a camera that folds out of the device using a robotic arm.The company said it plans to share more details at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona early next year.The new device would be the latest Chinese consumer electronics product to shake up a decades-old hardware design in an attempt to integrate AI. Earlier this year, Beijing-based Roborock started selling a robot vacuum cleaner with an arm…

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) speaks during a press conference following the weekly policy luncheon, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 3, 2025. Annabelle Gordon | ReutersDemocratic Sen. Maria Cantwell on Wednesday asked the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to investigate Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for “likely” violating the Hatch Act by making a video to be shown in airports blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.The Hatch Act bars federal employees, including Cabinet secretaries, from engaging in political activity while acting in their official role.Multiple major airports have refused to show Noem’s video near passenger…

Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe era of artificial intelligence on Wall Street, and its impact on workers, has begun.Big banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are unveiling plans to reimagine their businesses around AI, technology that allows for the mass production of knowledge work.That means that even during a blockbuster year for Wall Street as trading and investment banking spins off billions…

IMF’s report shows current account deficit at 0.4% of GDP for current fiscal yearPakistan faces over $8 billion in external debt maturities in FY25 (excluding $13 billion in routinely rolled-over bilateral loans) and any delay in debt rollovers can put the IMF programme at risk. photo: file ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected Pakistan’s economic growth rate at 3.6% for the current fiscal year, as Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb expressed hope that a staff-level agreement with the lender for two tranches worth $1.2 billion would be reached this week. The IMF released the World Economic Outlook report…

Chinese smartphone company Honor announced on Oct. 15 a slew of new AI features, including the ability to compare deals across different e-commerce sellers.CNBC | Evelyn ChengBEIJING — Imagine if Amazon gave 20% discounts for every purchase made using an iPhone Air.That’s essentially how Chinese smartphone company Honor wants to attract local buyers — by giving them an on-device AI tool that lets them quickly compare deals across Chinese e-commerce sites, including JD.com and different merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao. In one example seen by CNBC, the Honor AI-powered shopping search helped save 20% since the tool was able to find…

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, at the World Economic Forum in 2025.Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAnthropic on Wednesday announced Claude Haiku 4.5, a small artificial intelligence model that’s available as a lower-cost offering for all of the company’s users. The model is fast and can outperform other larger models that were considered cutting edge just months ago, Anthropic said. Claude Haiku 4.5 is better at using computers than Claude Sonnet 4, for instance, which is a midsized model the company launched in May. It performs similarly to Claude Sonnet 4 and OpenAI’s most recent model, GPT-5,…

Aurangzeb outlines agri-finance reforms, climate resilience to drive private sector growth, exports In Washington, during the sidelines of the IMF World Bank Annual Meetings, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb addressed a high-level World Bank panel titled “AgriConnect: Farms, Firms, and Finance for Jobs,” spotlighting Pakistan’s push to modernize its agricultural sector while confronting climate risks. Aurangzeb began by underscoring agriculture’s central role in Pakistan’s economy, contributing nearly one quarter of GDP and supporting millions of smallholder farmers owning less than five hectares. He stressed that policy would shift from direct control to facilitation, allowing the private sector to drive growth in…