Author: i2wtc

Waymo driverless vehicles charge at a Waymo charging station in Santa Monica, California, U.S., May 30, 2025. Daniel Cole | ReutersAlphabet’s Waymo on Thursday announced that it will soon begin manually driving its robotaxi vehicles in Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans. The Google sister company will start operating test drives in that trio of towns with human drivers in hopes of launching its driverless robotaxi service there as soon as next year, the company said. If Waymo does begin operating in those markets next year, that would bring the robotaxi company’s list of 2026 planned expansions to 15 cities. On…

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Thursday’s key moments. 1. The S & P 500 jumped 1.1% Thursday as the AI trade was back in full force following Nvidia ‘s blowout quarterly earnings. Shares of the chipmaker were up more than 4%, while peer Broadcom , a fellow Club name, surged nearly 6%. Wall Street also digested the delayed September jobs report , which showed that 119,000 jobs were added, well above the estimate of 51,000. The data was positive. But the October print…

Pakistan Navy sailors search a suspicious drug-laden dhow in the Arabian Sea. Photo: INP ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Navy ship TABUK carried out a major counter-narcotics operation, seizing over 2,000 kilogrammes of methamphetamine (ICE) from a stateless dhow in the Arabian Sea, according to a statement from the Director General of Public Relations (Navy) on Wednesday. The statement said PNS TABUK was operating on a Regional Maritime Security Patrol (RMSP) in support of the Saudi-led Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) under Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). This operation marks the “third consecutive successful interdiction” by Pakistan Navy ships in the past two…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia stand for a photo with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other participants at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center on Nov. 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.Win McNamee | Getty ImagesThe U.S. has approved sales of advanced Nvidia chips to Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN and the United Arab Emirates’ G42, authorizing the state-backed firms to buy up to 35,000 chips, worth an estimated $1 billion.The approval of these chip exports marks a major reversal for the U.S., which had previously…

Improvement in mortgage rates at the end of the summer boosted home sales, but that gain may be short-lived.Sales of previously owned homes in October rose 1.2% from September to 4.1 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were up 1.7% year over year. This count is based on home closings, so contracts likely signed in August and September. While contract signings would not be impacted by the government shutdown that started in October, closings, especially those requiring flood insurance or government-backed rural home loans, could be.During that contract-signing period, the…

Money laundering watchdog cracks down on Chinese ceramic factories over Rs30b in suspected tax evasion ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax chief on Wednesday warned Chinese companies to either fully disclose their production or wind up operations after a representative of four firms told a parliamentary panel that their managements were refusing to allow installation of monitoring cameras. Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Langrial issued the warning during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, reflecting the government’s zero tolerance for what it estimates to be Rs30 billion in annual tax evasion by tile manufacturers through the understatement of…

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesGoogle on Thursday rolled out Nano Banana Pro, its latest image editing and generation tool, continuing the company’s momentum after launching its new Gemini artificial intelligence model earlier this week.The product is built on Gemini 3 Pro, which was announced on Tuesday and contributed to record-breaking stock highs.Alphabet’s stock was up 4% Thursday.Josh Woodward, vice president of Google Labs and Gemini, told CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa that the Nano Banana Pro’s capabilities expand beyond its original iteration, which launched in late August. “It’s incredible at infographics. It can make slide decks. It can take up…

This photo taken on Sept. 26, 2025 shows a scene at an autumn campus job fair for Shanghai university graduates at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in east China’s Shanghai. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Education on Thursday said the total number of college graduates nationwide in 2026 is estimated to be around 12.7 million, which will mean a surge of 480,000 from 2025.In light of the situation, the ministry has arranged localities and higher education institutions to launch a specific campaign on improving the quality and expanding the scale of employment for…

Police officers walk past the Supreme Court of Pakistan building, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 6, 2022. REUTERS ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has raised alarm over systemic impunity for violent crimes against women, noting that the justice system continues to fail those most vulnerable to brutality. In a seven-page judgment authored by Justice Athar Minallah, the court raised alarms over the mounting cases of violence against women, observing that the bench, during the last twelve months, has dealt exclusively with the appeals arising from convictions involving capital punishment or imprisonment for life. “Alarmingly, a significant number of these cases concern victims…

Starbucks workers walk a picket line as they go on strike outside a Starbucks store on Nov. 13, 2025 in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City.Michael M. Santiago | Getty ImagesOne week into what baristas have threatened to make the “largest, longest” strike in Starbucks’ history, the Workers United union said it is adding more than two dozen new cities and stores to its strike count. The union said Thursday it will now be striking at 95 stores in 65 cities, with some 2,000 baristas now engaged in the action. On Wednesday, baristas and allies…